Indonesia saw slowing export value in its handicraft products as it reached 446.41 million U.S. dollars from January to August this year, or 2.34 million U.S. dollars lower than 457.12 million in the same period last year, an official said here Wednesday.

Inaugurating the annual handicraft trade fair Crafina in Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said that the slowing export on handicraft products was due to economy slowdown experienced by export destination countries. "Indonesia saw 5 to 6 percent export growth on its handicraft product once. This year was a bit different as economy activities in export destination countries have been slowing down,"Wirjawan said.

He added that countries that have received largest Indonesian handicraft products were the United States that took 43.32 percent of the products, followed by Japan (11.78 percent), the United Kingdom (5.03 percent), Germany (3.07 percent and Australia (3.14 percent).

The organizer of the Crafina event Bramantyo W said that the event was expected to gain 20 billion rupiah (about 1.72 million U. S. dollars) worth of transactions, or 3 billion rupiah (260,000 U. S. dollars) higher than last year.

The four-day event was co-sponsored by Indonesian handicraft producers and exporters association (Asephi) and participated by more than 600 domestic and foreign participants including those from Iran and Malaysia.

Bramantyo said the current annual trade fair was the sixth to have been held in the capital city's landmark convention center since 2008, expecting to attract some 36,000 foreign and domestic buyers, or 20 percent higher than that in the previous year.