The Indonesian Mamin Industry Depends On Imports, Gapmmi Boss Reveals The Cause

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers (Gapmmi) Adhi S. Lukman. (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA - The growth of the Indonesian food and beverage industry (mamin) is still good to date. However, this is not in line with the investment in food and beverage industry raw materials.

This is because the investment in industrial raw materials is still minimal in the midst of large import dependence.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers (Gapmmi) Adhi S. Lukman said, currently the Indonesian food and beverage industry still relies heavily on imports of raw materials.

Meanwhile, such as flour which must be imported 100 percent, sugar 100 percent, salt 70 percent, soybeans 70 percent and milk 80 percent.

"This is our big homework, the food and beverage industry still relies a lot on imports," said Adhi when met at Artotel Gelora Senayan, Jakarta, Monday, July 22.

On the other hand, domestic industrial raw material investment is still minimal.

Adhi revealed that the reason investors refused to choose Indonesia to invest in the raw material sector.

According to him, Indonesia is still far behind neighboring countries in attracting investor interest. Especially in terms of finance, logistics and licensing.

"Indeed, they (investors) said that there are investments in Singapore, Malaysia, because they get convenience there. That's what Indonesia needs to learn from there," he said.

He said that synchronization between upstream and downstream needs to be moved to reduce dependence on imports of food and beverage industry raw materials. Industrialization in the upstream agriculture sector is considered to be crucial, such as mechanization and automation which can achieve efficiency in increasing productivity.

"So, if the locomotive is downstream industry, the carriages upstream must participate," said Adhi.

Still, said Adhi, the existence of international exhibitions can also be a strategy to attract investors to enter Indonesia.

The Food Ingredients Asia Indonesia 2024 exhibition is claimed to be able to attract foreign investors to invest in industrial raw materials in the country.

Adhi hopes that there will be an active role from the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) in intensifying investment interest in the domestic food and beverage industry.

"We hope that this will continue to be encouraged and during the exhibition so that the Minister of Industry (Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita) invites as many investors as possible in Food Ingredient to enter Indonesia," he said.