BPOM: Traditional Medicines And Cosmetics Market Trends Rise During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Head of BPOM RI Penny K Lukito after opening the Frozen Food UMK Assistance Week during the Pandemic at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Tuesday, November 2 (Andi Firdaus/Antara)

JAKARTA - The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) said that the market for traditional medicine and cosmetics during the pandemic showed an upward trend.

Head of BPOM Penny K. Lukito assessed that the increase was because people were increasingly aware of maintaining health and hygiene by consuming and using herbal and cosmetic products.

"This opportunity needs to be used so that business actors, especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of herbal medicine and cosmetics can produce quality products," said Penny in the forum "Assisting Herbal and Cosmetic SMEs to become Independent and Competitive Entrepreneurs" in Bali which followed online in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Wednesday, November 17.

For this reason, according to her, support for MSMEs needs to be maximized through various government policy programs.

She considered that the traditional medicine and cosmetics industry has an important role in the national economy. Therefore, the government strongly supports the growth of the herbal and cosmetic industry.

"We encourage MSMEs for herbal medicine and cosmetics to be able to develop potential, local wisdom, and natural resources in every region in Indonesia, so as to produce commodities that have advantages, uniqueness, quality, and competitiveness," she said.

She conveyed, data from the POM Agency showed an increase in the number of products that received marketing permits in 2020, namely as many as 25.24 percent of traditional medicines and 2.33 percent of cosmetics.

The POM Agency also noted that the number of applications for registration of traditional medicines in 2020 was 9,125 files and cosmetics as many as 75,530 files.

The registration submissions are higher compared to 2019, namely traditional medicine with 7,286 files and cosmetics with 73,810 files. "Perhaps the increase from this registration will increase the number of business actors who move from other sectors to the traditional medicine and cosmetics sector," said Penny.

She conveyed that various programs have been developed by BPOM to help develop MSMEs, including training, technical guidance, and assistance which are efforts to assist business actors, both in the process of preparing production facilities or obtaining product distribution permits.