Wet markets still dominate fresh food trade

Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta

Despite the rapid expansion of modern retailers such as hypermarkets, supermarkets and mini-markets during the past few years, traditional wet markets continue to dominate the fresh food trade, according to the latest survey by AC Nielsen.

More than 95 percent of household shoppers preferred to buy fresh vegetables, meat and seafood at traditional outlets, particularly wet markets (60 percent of respondents), the AC Nielsen 2003 shopper trends survey stated.

"Traditional beliefs and the popularity of morning exercise have been key factors in sustaining wet markets in the shopping agenda," Yongky Surya Susilo, director of retailer and business development at AC Nielsen, told a media briefing on Monday.

Basic fresh food shopping would not move overnight toward modern trading even though the hygiene factor was crucial in modern lifestyles, he said.

The AC Nielsen report followed an earlier report in this paper that the rapid expansion of modern retail outlets may have caused the closure of many traditional grocery stores, causing huge job losses.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) 2003 National Labor Force Survey reported that jobs in the retail sector during the year declined by 7.42 percent to 4.24 million from 4.58 million in 2002.

Yongky, however, warned that modern retailers had begun to threaten the dominance of traditional markets in the fresh food trade.

The survey showed that while most fresh food shopping remained strong in traditional markets, 21 percent of the shoppers preferred to buy fresh fruit at modern outlets.

The fresh fruit trade has started to shift toward modern outlets and it may only be a matter of time before other fresh food items start moving as well, Yongky said.

"Retail chains would see this as an opportunity for expansion," he said.

He said that reasons why people purchased fresh fruit at modern outlets included better display and preservation systems, and that retailers had better access to imported fresh fruit.

Elsewhere, the survey also stated that modern retailers experienced strong growth in the number of outlets in the past two years, growing by an average of 31.4 percent per annum, while the number of traditional outlets declined by an average 8.1 percent per year.

The number of traditional stores dropped from 1.90 million in 2001 to 1.75 million nationally last year, while modern trade was up from 3,865 to 5,079 outlets.

Yongky said the expansion of modern retail outlets was inevitable because it was linked to changing lifestyles in urban areas.