'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)