SVLK Certification Helps Furniture Exporters
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The government has continued to help small and medium furniture producers to better run their businesses by opening export markets for their furniture products through a number of regulations.
The issuance of certifications through the domestic timber legality verification system (SVLK) helps small and medium industries and community forests.
"With the SVLK certification, small and medium industries that previously relied on brokers now can export their furniture directly. That\'s good, right? If there were parties who lost business, they should be the brokers, who did not own the industry," the director general of Sustainable Forest Management (PHPL) at the Environment and Forestry Ministry (KLHK), Ida Bagus Putera Parthama, told Kompas in Jakarta, Thursday, responding to complaints of furniture producers.
Putera said that Environment and Forestry Ministerial Regulation No. 43/2014 was no longer valid. "The ministry has issued a new regulation, LHK No. 30/2016, which provides access for SMEs and community forests," he said.
To assist the cost of the certification, in 2017, the KLHK and the Industry Ministry provided a subsidy of up to Rp 2.3 billion. The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) estimates that the subsidy for the certification in 2018 will reach Rp 7 billion.
Responding to complaints about the difficulties and long process in getting import recommendations from the KLHK, Putera said that the entire process of getting import recommendations could be made online.
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Separately, Arifin, the president director of PT Sasana Antik in Rembang regency, Central Java, said that small and medium furniture manufacturers in Central Java had urged the government not to further change the SVLK rules in order to ensure the sustainability of the country\'s furniture industry.
In 2015, the rulings on the implementation of the SVLK had changed at least three times in just a few months. Certainty is important because it is expensive to obtain SVLK certificates.
Arifin said that the implementation of regulations on wood materials helped furniture entrepreneurs to gain greater trust in the global market. However, various problems in getting SVLK certificates have not been resolved.
He suggested that the government realize its plan to open integrated timber terminals in areas where many small and medium-sized furniture enterprises are located. In Central Java, for example, it needs at least four to seven integrated terminals of wood raw materials for small furniture producers in Semarang, Jepara, Solo, Banyumas, Tegal and Pekalongan.
The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Industries (HIMKI) in Jepara Raya, Maskur Zaenuri, said that furniture producers were waiting for a follow-up on the policy related to the SVLK implementation.
The new regulation should not only make it easier to obtain SVLK certificates, but it should also provide a quick solution that can save the furniture industries in the country, he said.
The quick solution should allow imports of certain wood raw materials from the European Union and the United States. If it is realized, furniture companies will be able to import the materials inexpensively and easily, and process them into quality furniture products for the export market, with having to meet complicated SVLK requirements.
"Timber imported from Europe, for example, will also be exported to Europe in the form of finished furniture products. So there will no problems related to the legality of the wood," he said.
Second, the government needs to build an integrated timber terminal so that it will be easier for furniture producers to get raw materials. The wood raw materials that are taken into the integrated terminals should have already received SVLK certificates.
Meanwhile, in Surabaya, the president director of PT Kurnia Anggun, Yohannes Soemarno, said that a number of regulations that hamper the furniture industry should be removed, especially those applying to industries that produce finished products for export. They do not only absorb a large labor force, but also help raise foreign trade.
"The exporters of finished goods should get incentives from the government, instead of burdening them with the costly export verification process, which has caused a decline in competitiveness," said the owner of the furniture factory in Mojokerto.
Yohannes welcomes the Agricultural Quarantine Agency’s decision to revoke phytosanitary requirements on the import of plywood, veneer, particle board, wafer board, medium density fibre board (MDF), high density fibre board (HDF) and furniture samples.
Previously, the import of such materials and the samples of the furniture required a phytosanitary certificate. This resulted in additional costs for the furniture industry.
(WHO/ETA/SYA/SON)