Shopping centers urged to sell traditional food
Shopping centers urged to sell traditional food
JAKARTA (JP): A cabinet minister has urged owners of shopping
centers in the city to provide space for sellers of traditional
Indonesian food, enabling such food to compete with the massive
marketing of foreign cuisine here.
"Local food should be king in its own homeland, so there's no
reason for not helping promote and preserve the variety of
traditional Indonesian food," Minister of Food Ibrahim Hasan said
yesterday in response to a question raised by a franchiser of
Indonesian cuisine.
According to businessman Sukyatno Nugroho, known for his Es
Teler 77 franchise, he has been rejected as a tenant in a
shopping mall in Karawaci, Tangerang, about 30 kilometers west of
here. Es Teler 77 serves blended mixed fruit drinks and has 155
outlets across the nation
"The owners told me that the food counters at the mall are
only leased to foreign cuisine franchises and are not for
Indonesian food franchises," said Sukyatno, refusing to name the
mall.
"We did not ask for free or a special discounted rate but
still they gave us no space," said Sukyatno.
According to Minister Ibrahim, mall operators should give
local food the chance to gain popularity among local people and
foreigners.
"The late Mrs. Tien Soeharto once asked me 'what would happen
to our nation if even our taste was oppressed by foreign
cuisine?'," said the minister. "Where's our pride, then?" he
asked.
Although refusing to identify the mall, Ibrahim said he once
canceled a breaking of the fast meal at the mall in Karawaci when
he found no traditional food there.
To date there is only one mall in Karawaci: Lippo Supermal.
Minister Ibrahim, therefore, urged related officials to help
overcome the problem.
He said that the growth of outlets of foreign food franchises
in Indonesia had reached about 445 percent per year while those
of local food only reached 6 percent a year.
"We can easily find foreign food cuisine outlets in almost
every big city in this country," the minister said.
"We, therefore, have to do something if we don't want to see
the foreign food outlets expanding further to small towns," he
said.
"This is a challenge to all of us if we are to succeed in the
I love Indonesian Food campaign initiated by Mrs. Tien Soeharto,"
the minister said after attending the launching ceremony for
Sukyatno's newest outlet.
"We have thousands of traditional dishes available but still
many of us prefer foreign cuisine," he said.
In Jakarta alone, a number of world-class franchises, such as
California Fried Chicken, McDonald's Family's Restaurant,
Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dunkin Doughnut, have set up a number
of outlets to meet local demand. (bsr)