Lack of nutrition still affects Indonesia: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): Despite Indonesia's ability to provide the population with staple foods, the country continues to deal with cases involving a lack of nutrition and unbalanced diets, State Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan says.

Speaking at the celebration of World Food Day yesterday, Ibrahim said Indonesia has so far succeeded in increasing its food supply and consumption as well as improving the nutritional quality of its foods.

This, he said, can be seen from Indonesia's energy availability level, which reached 2,857 kilocalories per capita per day in 1994, higher than the 2,500 kilocalories per capita per day recommended by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

"Foods that are high in carbohydrate content, such as rice grains and tuber plants, still dominate the diets of most of the country's population," he said.

At the same time, however, most people's diets still lacked in protein content, particularly animal protein.

"This imbalance may cause 'double nutritional problems', meaning that people have a deficiency of certain nutrients and an excess of others," Ibrahim said.

Fish

Yesterday's celebration, which was attended by President Soeharto, cabinet ministers and guests from the diplomatic corps, was held at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta.

President Soeharto, in his speech yesterday, said the government intends to boost the population's protein consumption level and will do so by campaigning for the consumption of fish.

"The increasing demand for better-quality food requires larger food supplies. At the same time, however, fertile rice fields are rapidly decreasing, particularly those in Java," he said.

"Thus, apart from opening up new fields outside Java (to meet this demand), we must also utilize other natural resources we have, including those in our seas," he said.

Indonesia's territorial waters have a potential harvest of about 6.7 million tons of marine resources a year, but have so far utilized less than half of this, Soeharto said.

Indonesia also has some 14 million hectares of lakes, dams, swamps and rivers, of which only one-third has been used, he added.

"Fish is a source of animal protein which people can easily process. Therefore, fishery management and cultivation must be intensified," Soeharto said.

Ibrahim, in an interview with reporters yesterday, also commented on the increasing number of franchising businesses in the country.

He contended that Soeharto has warned about the dangers of allowing foreign food franchisees to enter regencies, saying that such businesses do not contribute much to boosting investment in Indonesia.

"Most franchisees, for example, import their raw materials. The businesses rely on royalties and have very limited amounts of investments," he said.

Ibrahim considered traditional food "better" and "healthier".

"But they don't compete well (with foreign franchises) because they often lack in quality and attractiveness," he said.

Commenting on this issue, the chairman of the AK & Partners franchise consulting firm, Amir Karamoy, said there is no reason to worry that foreign food franchises will outdo local businesses, particularly in the country's regencies.

"Even without government protection, foreign franchises will not be able to penetrate the regencies because -- except for the Greater Jakarta area -- regencies are not their market segment," he told The Jakarta Post.

"Most people in small cities will think twice before spending at least Rp 2,000 to Rp 2,500 (86 U.S. cents to US$1.08) for food sold by foreign franchises," he said.

Amir considered that what local businessmen should do is explore the franchising business and export their products, because it is the only way to compete with foreign franchises that invade the country.

"Indonesian businesses actually have an extraordinary potential for this," he pointed out.

Amir said the government should do more to recognize and tap this potential, so the businesses can compete on the international market.

Among the local businesses that have "gone franchise" are Mbok Berek, Ulam Restaurant, Es Teler 77, California Fried Chicken and Kurumaya Noodles. (pwn)

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