Menkop Teten: World Demand For Indonesian Health Products CONTINUES To Grow

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki, revealed that the world's demand, especially from developed countries for fitness products and a healthy lifestyle, continues to grow.

"Indonesia has a very rich biodiversity that can be a source of these products, Indonesia also has a tradition of healthy living based on Bali and Java. This will become one of our economic strengths in the future, especially MSMEs (which can take advantage of) their momentum through the G20 event in Bali," he said, in Nusa Dua., Bali, quoted from Antara, Tuesday 15 November.

He stated this at the Future Wellness Tradition (Local Wisdom for Global Sustainability) event at the Bali Collection, ITDC area, Nusa Dua, Bali, through an official statement.

In the future, he assesses that healthy living products will become superior products for Indonesian MSMEs and hopes that healthy living products will always conduct research to develop their products.

One of the healthy living industries that has developed is medicines made from herbs, such as products based on atsiri oil for therapeutic aromas. Wellness is agreed to have different meanings from just being healthy because it also contains elements of spirituality, social, intellectuality, and others.

Furthermore, these healthy living product business actors are asked to have to prepare products that are produced correctly, hygienically, and have high standardization considering that entering the overseas market requires meeting certain standardizations.

"We shouldn't just play in the local market," said Masduki.

Therefore, he welcomed the narrative of Indonesia's Healthy Life in the Village of MSMEs in the Future which illustrates the crucial role of developing the potential of MSMEs for healthy living products as one of the elements of Indonesia's future MSMEs.

"Our future is no longer building a hospital, but a healthy house," he said.

Furthermore, he also welcomed the initiative of the Indonesia Wellness Institute (IWI) and Smesco Indonesia in holding Future Wellness Trading activities which also became an additional G20 event to optimize the great potential for Indonesia's healthy living products.

Based on the facts, at least 10 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the health sector. In fact, WHO said the total global population affected by chronic diseases due to an unhealthy lifestyle would grow 70 percent by 2030.

Interestingly, he said, Indonesia has a domestic advantage that can be part of the solution to this problem, namely healthy living.

He admitted that he had discussions with several business actors with healthy living products such as those in Tawangmangu, Solo. He practiced Bayan (traditional Javanese dance) which is considered to have many benefits.

Physical activities and programs such as BEkanan are part of the sub-sector of the global healthy living product industry with a value of at least US$828 billion, or more than Rp12 thousand trillion.

According to the Global Wellness Institute in 2021, aspects of body care, beauty, and anti-aging are the largest portion of healthy living products. The total potential that can be obtained from these aspects is 1,083 billion US dollars or around Rp. 16 thousand trillion.

A number of these aspects are stated to have begun to be enlivened by many domestic brand-owned holders.

Healthy, organic, high-nutrient, and weight loss food products occupy the third sector with the largest portion with a global value of US$702 billion or more than Rp10,000 trillion.

In Indonesia, organic actors continue to grow. For example, there has been a growing brand from Indonesia that is increasingly popular, including Javara and Levis Organic. These facts become crucial justification to prepare Indonesian future MSMEs engaged in the healthy living product sector," he said.