While delivering remarks at the closing of the Chef Expo 2025 in Jakarta on Saturday, he stated that food MSMEs cannot only depend on heritage recipes.
"To level up and be competitive, food entrepreneurs must adopt clear quality standards and have food safety certificates," he said in his written statement in Jakarta on Sunday.
According to him, the Ministry of MSMEs actively encourages various programs such as training, dissemination of information, certification facilitation, and financing access support.
These steps are aimed at supporting the transformation of food entrepreneurs to help them be adaptive and competitive.
"We have signed MoUs, one of which is with the National Police (Polri) to assist MSME entrepreneurs in certification," he remarked.
Amid the rising trend of implementing a healthy lifestyle, he also highlighted the big market potential of quality food products.
According to data from the Ministry of Trade, the export value of Indonesia's food and beverage industry reached US$3.78 billion, or 21.36 percent of the total non-oil and gas exports.
Data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) in the first quarter of 2025 also showed that the food and beverage industry recorded the highest growth in the processing sector, reaching 0.42 percent.
In addition, the number of food and beverage businesses in Indonesia has reached 4.85 million units, providing jobs to around 9.80 million people.
The minister expressed optimism that the Chef Expo 2025 served as a strategic event to strengthen collaboration and innovation and to empower food MSMEs, and invited chefs to play the role of brand ambassadors for MSME products.
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Translator: Shofi Ayudiana, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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