"We cannot say that we will stop imports. If we do that, Indonesian products will also be stopped for export," Lukita noted while visiting the "Omo! Healthy Snack" hawker factory on Jalan Magelang, Yogyakarta, on Thursday.
According to Lukita, the most logical effort to do now is to continue to encourage the passion of domestic industrial products to be able to compete and dominate local retail markets.
"What we really have to do is to encourage domestic industries. We want be host in our own country. We want to excel at least in our own country," he remarked.
The minister added that one of the baby snack products brand "Omo! Healthy Snack" is one of the domestic products that has quality to compete with similar products from abroad.
The product, which won the first place in a talented local creator search event initiated by Tokopedia, MakerFest 2018, according to Lukita, succeeded in carrying out creative ideas by targeting the baby`s healthy food segment and by avoiding the use of MSG, sugar, and salt. "In terms of production, the price is very competitive too. We have to just push so that the production would be even more massive," he explained.
To strengthen the expansion of local products such as Omo! in the domestic market, according to him, the Ministry of Trade will work with modern retailers who are members of the Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo) to prioritize local products entering the retail market.
However, in order to easily enter the retail market, all domestic SME products must first be ensured to have sufficient production capacity, good packaging, and affordable prices.
"I will call the modern retail market of Aprindo, but the licensing system must be set up first," he elaborated.
Reporting by Luqman Hakim, Eliswan Azly
Editing by Andi Abdussalam
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
