FOOD SMALL – INDUSTRY PREPARED IN FACING THE AEC FORMATION 2015

The small and medium Industry (IKM) especially that of the food sector were prepared for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) of 2015. According to Adhi Siswaya Lukman, Chairman of the Association of Food and Beverage Traders (GAPMMI) disclosed to Business News Thursday (10/6) that he was aware of the fact that the Ministry of Industry had offered aid to the Small Industry (IKM) particularly in terms of standard, safety, and sanitation.

A part from the above, the aid extended was also related to identification of efforts to identity products to be exported. It was expected that by 2015 AEC would have been running, so if small business (UKM) were not reformed, it would be left behind. The present objective was that by that the time AEC runs, the UKM would be ready to sell their products. This means that the standard should be the same whether it was from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore or other countries.

For that matter it was necessary to have MRA, since the case was not simple. Supposedly from now on the working group would have begun their actions, especially in Food & Beverages trading. They were now working on how to standardize products which were not the same, for example that between Singapore and Indonesia.

If Indonesia did not strive hard, Indonesia would not be ready for it. However, businesspeople were optimistic that by rigorous effort, in the next 5 years small business would not die – especially with the support of various ectors like the industrial sector.
The Directorate General of Food Safety and Packaging.

Eddy Siswanto, the Director of Food Industry, Director General of Small-and Medium Industry (IKM) stated to BusinessNews Wednesday (9/6) that the classical problem of IKM was low safety level or quality guarantee of IKM food products and matters related to packaging.

All food equipments and utensils must meet sanitation standard, so the end result would be more hygienic. This was the pre condition that must be understood from the very beginning. So far, in order to strengthen guarantee of food safety, the sanitary aspect of food processing needed supervision thereby the hygienic aspect of processing could be under control-because the traditional ways of food processing which was inherited from generation to generation was not too reassuring.

Apparently is was not easy to change old ways, which had been adopted for too long, including security of product quality. For example in Magelang there was an accompaniment plan for IKM specializing in tofu-cream business apparently they were accustomed to using dry wood as fuel for the warming process.

Among the many aspects to be highlighted were promoting efficiency and strengthening competitive edge of traders, changing traditional habit of using dry wood as fuel into gas as fuel. Warming system was changed into boiler system. Advisors were approaching the people to teach them how to work more efficiently.

After highlighting on production efficiency, the next focus was on proper packaging, which was the basic competence in business. Just as books were judged by their cover, food were judged by their packaging.