'Imported food hits local products'

'Imported food hits local products'

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto expressed concern yesterday
that the influx of foreign foods was threatening the survival of
traditional products which had the potential to penetrate the
global market.

Addressing the opening of the annual workshop on food and
nutrition held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Soeharto
said: "We are facing various threats, (including) the flooding of
instant food and the raw materials for the food industry from
abroad."

Accompanied by State Minister of Research and Technology B.J.
Habibie, Soeharto said Indonesia had a rich variety of
traditional foods which could become people's main source of
nutrition.

"We need to develop our traditional foods' potential. We have
to make Indonesian food something that the public respects and
enjoys," he told participants at the meeting that lasts through
Friday.

It is the task of food and nutrition experts to help local
foods compete in the global market, he said.

The President pointed out that despite ample opportunities to
exports, many Indonesian products were rejected abroad because of
local producers' failure to meet quality standards.

"This rejection shows our food exporters are below standard,"
he said.

Love

The government has, over the years, campaigned to instill
pride and love for local products. In 1993, during the World Food
Day commemoration, for instance, he launched the "I Love
Indonesian Food" campaign and told the public that Indonesian
fried chicken tasted just as good as foreign equivalents.

At the time, however, Soeharto did not express any concern
over the possible domination of foreign foods over local ones.
"The shift toward Western food such as hamburgers, hot dogs and
others is only because they are trendy," he said then. (swe/prb)