Medan, Indonesia – Siti, who sells used clothing in the Indonesian city of Medan, usually can’t wait for Ramadan.
During the Muslim holy month, shoppers flock to her stall at one of the city’s largest second-hand clothing markets to shop for 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 stocks are dwindling so much that she worries about empty shelves.
“I hope there will still be stocks,” Siti, who declined to give her full name, told Al Jazeera. “If there are no clothes, that means no money.”
The trade in used clothing has long been booming in Indonesia, despite efforts by the government, which in 2015 banned the import of second-hand clothing on alleged grounds that it threatened public health and the local textile industry. The sale of used clothing from the region does not fall under the ban.
The second-hand clothing trade has come under renewed scrutiny by authorities since an investigation by Reuters news agency in March that found donated second-hand shoes in Singapore were being sent to Indonesia for sale instead of one as promised program to be recycled in the city-state.
The revelation prompted Jakarta to announce increased customs inspections and surveillance at ports. Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan declared a renewed war on used clothing that would target not only illegal imports but also local second-hand shops.
Late last month, Hasan attended an event in West Java to destroy more than 7,000 bundles of illegally imported second-hand clothing worth $5.3 billion.
“This is a follow-up to an order from the President [Joko “Jokowi” Widodo]. We’ve done it several times and this is the highlight,” Hasan told local media.
At the same event, Teten Masduki, the minister for cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises, described the crackdown as an attempt to protect local businesses.
Authorities in West Java last month destroyed $5.3 billion worth of illegally imported second-hand clothing [Aisyah Llewellyn]Customs officials say illegal importers source the clothes from other Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand before sorting them into categories like denim and baby clothes and selling them in bulk to individual sellers.
The raid has made business difficult for sellers like Siti, whose garments are shipped from Singapore to Indonesia via the Indonesian port of Tanjung Balai.
“I hope we can still buy used clothes, but I’ve heard that if they’re transported, the authorities set them on fire right away,” said Siti, who usually sells a bagload of used clothes every few weeks for about $536 .
Hotnida Sianturi, another used clothes seller in Medan, said she sources her clothes from Korea or Japan, but sourcing products is becoming increasingly difficult as importers fear their goods will be confiscated and burned.
Luckily for Sianturi, she still has some stash left to tide over for now.
“I kind of had an instinct that there was going to be a problem,” she told Al Jazeera. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t get any more stock. I hope that the government can come to an agreement with the importers.”
While vendors have protested the ban, some Indonesians have welcomed it. Rio Priambodo, an official with the Indonesia Consumer Foundation, said the foundation strongly supports the measure.
Secondhand clothes sellers in Indonesia say the government’s ban on importing used clothes makes no sense [Aisyah Llewellyn]”From a health perspective, used clothing poses a risk as it could carry bacteria or fungi that can bring diseases to Indonesia from other countries,” Priambodo told Al Jazeera.
“It’s also not good for the local economy because it means that if people buy second-hand clothes from abroad, the Indonesian textile industry will cut production. Second-hand clothing can also pollute the environment. If people don’t buy them because they’re in bad shape, they become garbage and clog Indonesian landfills.”
For the saleswoman 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 belittle the industry, but if you want branded clothes at an affordable price, the only way to get them is second-hand from abroad.”
Kosman Samosir, a lecturer in business law at the Santo Thomas Catholic University in Medan, said that while there may be legitimate reasons for a ban, the measure has only led to more 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 officially live below the poverty line.
“Personally, I approve of the sale of used clothing,” Samosir said. “There are people who don’t have the means to buy branded clothing at full price, the chance to still 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 has to be looked at carefully in the future.”
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