Exhibition highlights 'Jamu'

YOGYAKARTA: Herbs and traditional herbal medicines, popularly known as jamu, are one of the highlights of the 8th Jogja Export Expo at the Jogja Expo Center here until Tuesday.

According to Hermawan Ardiyanto of the expo's organizing committee, some 40 companies comprising of jamu producers, herbal plant producers and medicine ingredient traders will participate in the exhibition, which the committee claims is the first of its kind to be held in the country.

The exhibition, he said, is aimed at making the city the center of the herbal medicine industry in Indonesia.

"With the emerging empon-empon (traditional medicinal herbs) plantation in the province, its historical background as the heritage city and as the location of the Yogyakarta Palace, we do think that Yogyakarta deserves the status (as the heart of the herbal medicine industry)," Hermawan said.

He said, that although Jogja's Export Expo had been held annually since 1995, this year the organizing committee allocated a special space to herbal medicines and related industries, aside from craft and home interior products.

"We are optimistic that we will be able to realize this dream within or four years at the latest", he said.

He said that the organizing committee currently focused only on domestic industries but in the future they would start inviting foreign industries, especially those of Asian countries, to participate in the exhibition.

This way, Yogyakarta would not just be known for the availability of Indonesian herbal medicines, but for those of the rest of Asia, Hermawan said. -- JP