It Is Fun, The Government Increases The Portion Of Meals For Hajj Pilgrims To A Total Of 85 Times

Illustrated. (Achmad Basarrudin / YOU)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Religion (Wamenag) Zainut Tauhid Sa'adi said the government will increase the portion of food for pilgrims in Saudi Arabia this year. This additional portion of food is an effort made by the government to support MSMEs involved in supplying the needs of the pilgrims.

"In the 2021 Hajj, the amount of food will be added 10 times when the congregation is in the Holy Land," he said, at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Optimizing the Role of Small and Medium Enterprises in Meeting the Needs of Hajj and Umrah, Wednesday, January 13.

With this additional portion of food, the pilgrims will get a total of 85 meals during their worship in the Holy Land of Makkah.

According to Zainut, usually the pilgrims get 75 meals during the pilgrimage. The details are 40 meals in Makkah, 1 meal at Jeddah Airport, 18 meals in Medina and 15 meals at Arafah and Mina.

"Indonesian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia for 40 days. Every day they need sufficient food intake to stay healthy and fit in performing their prayers," he said.

On the same occasion, the Minister of Trade (Mendag), Muhammad Lutfi explained, with the additional portion of food for this pilgrimage, Indonesian MSMEs can contribute to supply the needs of the congregation. Because, every year nearly 2 million Indonesians come to the Holy Land.

"At least the congregation who ate this 85 times and hopefully the food which costs Rp. 50,000 per meal can be dominated by Indonesian MSMEs," he said.

Previously, the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (MenKop UKM) Teten Masduki said supporting SMEs to participate in fulfilling the needs of the Haj and Umrah pilgrims was an effort to restore economic conditions. This is because the business sector is the backbone of the Indonesian economy.

"I think this collaboration is a form of optimism at the beginning of the year which shows that MSMEs are still surviving in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has not yet ended. The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs has encouraged the participation of SMEs in meeting the needs of the Haj and Umrah pilgrims as part of the government's efforts to recover the national economy, "said Teten.

Not only that, said Teten, involving MSMEs to supply the needs of the Haj and Umrah pilgrims is the same as supporting this sector to access a wider market.

"This is part of the collaboration, among others, from financial support, training, standardization and product certification, product curation and promotion, including access to markets as regulated in the Job Creation Law," he said.