The Ministry of Industry is encouraging batik small and medium industries (SMIs) to seize market potential, especially the market for batik for Hajj pilgrims. As the country with the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia naturally has a large number of Hajj pilgrims. For the 2024 Hajj season, Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenag) data show there are 241,000 pilgrims from Indonesia.
“One distinctive feature of Indonesian Hajj pilgrims is that they wear batik uniforms to make it easy to identify their departure groups. The use of batik uniforms is of course a market opportunity that batik SMIs can maximize,” the Director General of Small, Medium and Miscellaneous Industries (IKMA) at Kemenperin, Reni Yanita, said in Jakarta on Tuesday (2/4).
For this year's Hajj season, Kemenag, through the Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah Services (Ditjen PHU), has set the batik motif for Indonesian pilgrims. The motif comes from the winner of the Indonesian Hajj pilgrim batik motif design competition held in August 2023, won by Sony Adi Nugroho with the Sekar Arum Sari batik motif.
The batik fabric motif is dominated by purple with a silhouette of the Garuda bird emblem. Indonesian pilgrims will be required to wear it through Hajj service providers. The Intellectual Property Rights to the winning motif belong entirely to Kemenag, which has also appointed 61 batik SMIs to produce the fabric through a Decree of the Director General of PHU.
The Director General of IKMA expressed appreciation for the step taken by Kemenag through Ditjen PHU to preserve the use of genuine batik, not printed batik, for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims.
“Of course we hope this is a good start and a strategic step forward in empowering domestic batik industry players, and in making our Hajj pilgrims ambassadors for genuine Indonesian batik,” she explained.
To obtain the production license for this batik, under Decree of the Director General of PHU Number 366 of 2023, SMIs must have a Business Identification Number (NIB) meeting Indonesian Standard Industrial Classification (KBLI) 13134 (Batik Industry).
They must also have standardized raw materials and production process technology, hold or be in the process of obtaining Batikmark certification, hold or be in the process of obtaining halal certification submitted to the Halal Product Assurance Agency (BPJPH), have a workshop or workplace for production, and show proof of capability to produce stamped (cap) batik.
After obtaining the production license, SMIs can coordinate with the Hajj Cost Deposit Receiving Banks (BPS BPIH) to take part in the procurement of batik uniforms for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims carried out by BPS BPIH.
The Director General of IKMA said that in 2024 her side is supporting the policy by facilitating and supervising Batikmark and halal certification for batik SMIs that do not yet have the required documents or are in the certification process, to help SMIs guarantee quality for Hajj consumers.
“We hope that in the future more batik SMIs will benefit from this policy by becoming producers of batik uniforms for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims,” she said.
Reni added that Kemenperin is obliged to guarantee that the quality of final products made by SMIs conforms to the standards set by Kemenag.
Even so, Reni hopes that in implementing the policy on procuring batik uniforms for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims, strong synergy and communication can be built among stakeholders—Kemenag, Kemenperin and BPS BPIH—so the program can continue and more batik SMIs can benefit from it.
“With this large market potential, SMIs can be encouraged to improve their quality and capacity by completing their legal documents, certification and adequate workshops,” she added.
Source: Press Release of the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia