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)