Red and White Village Cooperative Outlets Prioritise UMKM Products

Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono stated that one of the business activities of the Red and White Village and Urban Ward Cooperatives, or Red and White Village Cooperatives, is modern retail. He assured that UMKM products will be prioritised to fill these retail outlets.

Therefore, the government will encourage curation, incubation, and financing programmes for UMKM products across all regions. “Don’t worry about the products not selling, because we guarantee they will be prioritised for sale in the outlets or shelves in the Red and White Village and Urban Ward Cooperatives,” said Ferry during his speech at the closing of the Sharia Finance Ramadan Festival (GERAK) 2026 in Central Jakarta, Thursday, 2 April 2026.

This step will foster community behaviour that was previously only consumers, now able to develop into producers. According to Ferry, many UMKM products in the regions previously had difficulty selling to other retailers. “Now we open opportunities that we will prioritise from the many local products,” he said.

The existence of the Red and White Village Cooperatives, which have already been established in tens of thousands through physical construction, warehouses, outlets, and equipment, is expected to become part of the ecosystem for developing literacy and building the real sector. Especially for the development of Sharia economic communities. He is also optimistic that village cooperatives will become the centre of new sustainable Sharia economic growth.

Previously, Ferry mentioned that 34,000 cooperatives in Indonesia are building physical outlets. “Those that are already (built) 100 percent number 2,500 physical buildings,” he said on 29 March 2026, quoted from Antara.

The tens of thousands of Red and White Village Cooperatives are part of the total of around 83,000 cooperatives across Indonesia that have been formed and have legal entity status or deeds. Based on Presidential Instruction Number 17 of 2025, the Ministry of Cooperatives tasked PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara (Persero) with building the physical structures, outlets, and equipment for the Village and Urban Ward Cooperatives, assisted by the TNI. The government targets that in August and September 2026, there will be 10,000 Red and White Village Cooperatives that have completed their physical construction process.