MSME Minister Admits Rupiah Weakening Is Beginning to Pressure Business Owners

Minister for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Maman Abdurrahman has acknowledged that the weakening of the rupiah against the US dollar is beginning to put pressure on a number of MSMEs, especially those dependent on imported raw materials. “Leaving aside everything else, we must acknowledge that there is definitely an impact in certain specific sectors on our MSMEs,” Maman told journalists in Jakarta on Wednesday. Despite this, Maman stated that the government is continuously striving to maintain the stability of the rupiah exchange rate through coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia. Regarding the affected sectors, Maman highlighted tofu and tempeh producers, who are beginning to feel the strain due to a heavy dependence on imported soybeans as their primary raw material. “As we can see, the ones emerging now are our tempeh and tofu artisans, because indeed our dependence on imported soybean raw materials is high there,” he said. Confronting this situation, Maman stated that the Ministry of MSMEs, together with the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and Bank Indonesia, is continuing to monitor and mitigate the situation to prevent a wider impact on business owners. “The most important thing is that the government will not remain silent and will continue to carry out mitigation to prevent and anticipate impacts that could affect our MSMEs,” he said. Specifically for the soybean commodity, the government on Tuesday (9/6) announced it would provide a subsidy of Rp2,000 per kilogramme through the State Logistics Agency (Perum Bulog) to maintain price stability amid the rupiah’s depreciation and high import dependency. Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan said that in the first phase the government will distribute subsidies for 250,000 tonnes of soybeans. The President Director of Perum Bulog, Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, stated that the technical implementation of the soybean subsidy is still to be discussed with the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and soybean business associations.