The Indonesian Trade Ministry and the Netherlands’ center for promotion of imports from developing countries (CBI) held a two-day training on fair trade for local home décor and home textile exporters on Monday and Tuesday.

The government focused on improving the competitive advantage of the local home accessories and home textile makers in the global market.

With growing demand for fair trade certification globally, government urged these local textile makers to acquire the certification to be competitive in the market.

“Fair trade certification will give our textile products a competitive edge in the international market”, said, Doddy Edward, Trade Ministry’s director for export development cooperation.

The fair trade labels would play a significant role as Indonesian home décor and home textile products are largely exported to Europe, where the concerns on the making of exported products are rising, said Doddy.

Recently, more and more European consumers have become demanding of assurances that products they buy are made properly, environment-friendly and did not involve child labor in their production, said Kees Bronk, CBI’s expert for home decoration.

In food sector, fair trade products have a share of about 40% of the European food market. Similarly, the share of fair trade labeled home décor and home textile products would increase gradually in the European market, Bronk stated.