Indonesia’s war on secondhand clothes riles local sellers

Medan, Indonesia – Siti, who sells used clothes in the Indonesian city of Medan, usually can’t wait for Ramadan.

During the Islamic holy month, shoppers flock to her stall at one of the city’s largest second-hand clothing markets to buy clothes ahead of the Eid holiday.

But this year, the prospect of crowds fills Siti with dread.

As Indonesia wages a war on used clothing, her stock dwindles to the point that she worries about empty shelves.

“I hope there is still stock available,” Siti, who declined to give her full name, told Al Jazeera. “If there are no clothes, that means no money.”

Indonesia has long been home to a thriving trade in used clothing, despite the efforts of the government, which in 2015 banned the import of second-hand clothing on the grounds that it poses a threat to public health and the local textile industry. The sale of locally produced used clothing is not covered by the ban.

The second-hand clothing trade has come under renewed scrutiny by authorities since an investigation by Reuters news agency in March revealed that donated second-hand shoes in Singapore were being sent to Indonesia for sale instead of being recycled, as promised, by a program in the city-state.

The exposure prompted Jakarta to announce increased customs controls and surveillance in ports. Indonesia’s Commerce Minister, Zulkifli Hasan, declared a renewed war on used clothing that would target not only illegal imports but also local thrift stores.

Late last month, Hasan attended an event in West Java to destroy more than 7,000 bundles of illegally imported secondhand clothing worth $5.3 billion.

“This is a follow-up to a directive from the president [Joko “Jokowi” Widodo]. We’ve done this several times and this is the climax,” Hasan told local media.

Speaking at the same event, Teten Masduki, the minister of cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises, called the crackdown an attempt to protect local businesses.

Customs authorities say illegal importers source the clothes from other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, before sorting them into categories, such as denim and babywear, and selling them in bulk to individual sellers.

For vendors like Siti, whose clothes are shipped to Indonesia from Singapore via the Indonesian port of Tanjung Balai, the crackdown has made doing business difficult.

“I hope we can still buy used clothes, but I’ve heard that if the authorities find one being transported, they immediately set it on fire,” said Siti, who usually sells a bag of used clothes that comes every few weeks costs about $536.

Hotnida Sianturi, another used clothes seller in Medan, said she gets her clothes from Korea or Japan, but it’s getting harder to find products because importers fear their wares will be confiscated and burned.

Luckily for Sianturi, she has some supplies left to save her for now.

“I kind of had an instinct that there would be a problem,” she told Al Jazeera. “I don’t know what to do if I can’t get any more supplies. I hope the government will come to an agreement with the importers.”

While vendors have protested the ban, some Indonesians have welcomed it. Rio Priambodo, an official at the Indonesian Consumer Foundation, said the foundation strongly supported the measure.

“From a health point of view, used clothing poses a risk because it can contain bacteria or fungi that can bring diseases from other countries to Indonesia,” Priambodo told Al Jazeera.

“It is also not good for the local economy, as it means that the Indonesian textile industry will reduce production if people buy second-hand clothes from abroad. Second-hand clothing can also affect the environment. If people don’t buy them because they are in poor condition, they become garbage that clogs Indonesia’s landfills.”

For seller Sianturi, such arguments are difficult to take seriously.

“The local textile industry is expensive and the quality is not as good as imported products,” she said. “I’m not trying to discredit the industry, but if you want designer clothes at an affordable price, second-hand from abroad is the only way to get it.”

Kosman Samosir, a business law lecturer at Santo Thomas Catholic University in Medan, said that while there may be valid reasons for a ban, the measure has only increased smuggling.

He said the government should understand why many Indonesians want to buy second-hand clothes in a country where more than 26 million people live below the poverty line according to official records.

“Personally, I agree with selling used clothes,” Samosir said. “It gives people who don’t have the means to buy designer clothes at full price the chance to own a piece.”

“However, legally there is a big difference between selling second-hand clothes within Indonesia to customers who need to dress their families cheaply and importing used clothes from abroad. That is something that needs to be looked at closely in the future.”