The National Crafts Council (Dekranas) plans to organize an online handicraft exhibition presenting dozens of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) hosted on the online marketplace Tokopedia to welcome National Batik Day on October 2.
The council’s store on Tokopedia offered hundreds of handicraft products, including batik, from dozens of MSMEs expected to become a spearhead in the national economic recovery efforts, Dekranas Head Wury Ma’ruf Amin noted in her press statement on Tuesday.
North Jakarta entrepreneur Irmanita Sinurat, who owned the Batik Marunda brand, lauded the Dekranas online exhibition that benefited her business.
“I feel the benefits of participating in the Dekranas exhibition on Tokopedia, as they allow my product to be exposed to the wider market potential while also providing online business training for small businesses,” Sinurat stated. Sinurat is using her Batik Marunda brand to assist dozens of mothers and young women living in the Marunda Flat complex, North Jakarta, to regain their livelihood and become more productive by participating in her batik business.
After almost being obliterated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Batik Marunda brand began to recover from its 80-percent decline in 2020 as the economy began to recover this year. The recent economic rise motivated her and other small businesses to create products at affordable prices to attract the youth.
“We also innovate by producing batik fabric masks to ensure that our business remains relevant amid the recent pandemic situation,” she stated. Participation of women in the Batik Marunda enterprise has increased five folds since she started her business in 2015. Apart from supporting her neighbor in the Marunda Flat complex, Sinurat also extended support to the Pekalongan batik producers by procuring her batik fabric from them.
“We continue to provide tailoring classes for women at the flat complex to make them economically independent. We also invited notable artists and designers to help us in designing our custom batik pattern,” Sinurat remarked.
As the Dekranas exhibition’s host, online marketplace Tokopedia has recorded a two-fold increase in batik sales in their platform for the second quarter of 2021, as compared to the total sales during the corresponding period in 2020.
Tokopedia recorded popular batik products on the online market platform, such as batik clothing, batik long fabrics, and batik masks.
Source: Antara News