Foodpreneur School Develops Value-Added Products
The government is continuing to promote local food businesses in various parts of Indonesia, including transmigration areas.
Transmigration Minister M. Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara said the initiative aims to create new, sustainable economic growth areas for communities, particularly in transmigration regions. “The transformation of transmigration today is not simply about relocating people, but about ensuring that prosperity can also grow in those areas,” Iftitah said in a statement on Wednesday (21 October 2026).
An approach centred on residents’ welfare is also a priority for Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY). Together with the Patriot Expedition Team in Jayapura, AHY has formulated various solutions tailored to local communities’ needs and capacities.
“Because the context of the problems is ultimately local. We can think big, or use the phrase ‘think globally but act locally’. Ultimately, it is local,” he said.
Through the Foodpreneur School, developed by the government with the University of Brawijaya’s Patriot Expedition Team (TEP UB), participants are receiving support to develop processed food businesses using local ingredients.
The programme has been implemented with farmers’ wives in the Klamono-Segun Transmigration Area in South-west Papua.
Dina Aqilla, a TEP UB member in Klamono-Segun, said the area’s agricultural potential is being linked with food-processing skills and market opportunities. The support is intended to give farming families a foundation for developing local food businesses and earning more from their harvests.
“Chillies and tomatoes, which have so far been sold fresh, as well as banana blossoms, which are rarely used, are now the ingredients for 50 farmers’ wives in Klamono-Segun to start processed food businesses,” Dina said.
With support from TEP UB, they are learning to produce value-added goods, with the aim of selling them to local supermarkets and souvenir shops in Raja Ampat.
The training is being delivered through the Local Food Foodpreneur School, initiated by TEP 19 UB, in Wariyau Village, Klamono District, and Malasigit Village, Malabotom District. Since September 2026, participants divided into 10 groups have received training to develop five main products: onion chilli sauce, crab chilli sauce, tomato sauce, lime-leaf chilli flakes and shredded banana blossom.