REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Puspayoga expressed discontent to the influx of Malaysian culinary products in souvenir stores in border areas and other tourism sites.
"I am disappointed as many Malaysian food products have flooded the souvenir culinary stores in Batam city. The Malaysian products have good packaging material and are decorated with Indonesian specific icons such as the Barelang Bridge of Batam," the minister noted in a press release received here on Monday.
According to the minister, the foreign food products have also made inroads into Padang City in West Sumatra Province and bear the image of Gadang House for Padang foods and Pendet Dancer icon for Balinese food products.
Puspayoga cautioned that the increasing presence of foreign food products in Indonesia can adversely affect the local SMEs.
In order to handle the issue, the ministry will promote Indonesian SMEs by creating better packaged products for specific food items.
The ministry will encourage the local SMEs to master better production techniques, particularly for food packaging.
"I have received information that the packaging companies do not want to create less than one thousand food packets. However, the SME businesses can only order 500 to 700 packets. Thus, the SME businesses only choose simple packaging products," Puspayoga pointed out.
As a result, SME products are facing stiff competition from foreign products, which have attractive packaging.
Puspayoga emphasized that his ministry will coordinate with other related institutions to hold training and tutorial sessions for the people working in SMEs to handle product packaging issues.
Minister Puspayoga hopes that the local SMEs can compete with other foreign products in the local and international markets in the future.
"We have also planned to build a packaging house in each province that has leading SME business persons," the minister added.
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