A Study of Export Barrier in Garut Leather Tannery Industry

The economic development of a country currently cannot be separated from the condition of global economy. Economic relations between country is an influencing factor for the development of both country involved. Therefore, export activity of an industry is very important for the development of a country’s economy. Based on data obtained through the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, export distribution in the form of footwear is 86%, leather finished goods are 13%, and leather is 1%. According to these data, it can be seen that the contribution of the leather tanning industry which is included in Leather Goods is very small in the total export distribution of leather. Meanwhile, by carrying out export activities, the leather industry will benefitted because it will open access to new customers who will have the potential to increase revenue and long-term growth. The data for this research was collected through 52 factory owners in this industry. After the data has been collected, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to see how many factors become the barrier of exporting in Garut leather tannery industry. The result of this research is there are three factors that become the barrier to do export in Garut leather tannery industry, namely functional, international and governmental barriers. Meanwhile the result of descriptive analysis shows that Garut leather tannery industry perceive high cost of capital to finance exports, difficulties in organizing promotional activities abroad, and lack of financial resources to conduct market research in overseas markets as the barrier to do export activities. The findings suggest that the government should support both the knowledge and infrastructure regarding export for all the business owners in Garut leather tannery industry, meanwhile the business owners should also be active in searching for business opportunities in international market. For future studies, it was suggested to consider management’s entrepreneurship capabilities as a factor that can hinder exports.