JAKARTA, 2 June 2022 – After successfully conducted two Business Meetings in Belitung and Bali in 2021, and managed the first International Business Matching in March this year to connect buyers from Canada, Germany and the Philippines with coffee farmers/SMEs from Ijen areas, Yogyakarta, and Bali, NSLIC/NSELRED Project is now conducting another major Business Matching event to open access for spice farmers to national and international markets. This time, NSLIC connects 10 groups of nutmeg, pepper, and clove farmers from North and South Sulawesi with potential buyers from domestic and international including from Canada, Dubai, Egypt, Germany, North America and the Netherlands.
The event is divided into two categories: i) the International Online Business Matching which will connect local SMEs and spice farmers with the international buyers; and ii) the National Business Meeting and Spices Expo which will connect local spice farmers and SMEs from Sulawesi with major domestic buyers. The purpose of the event is to increase the local income of women and men and strengthening competitiveness and entrepreneurship of local SMEs.
During his opening remarks, Mark Strasser, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Canada to Indonesia conveyed that “Canada is proud to support Indonesia’s efforts to generate employment and income for poor, vulnerable women and men by improving the investment climate and strengthening local economic development across 28 districts in Indonesia – from Sumatra to West Papua.” Mr. Strasser was pleased that the theme of the event aligns with the Government of Indonesia’s Indonesia Spice Up the World program. He stressed that, “the involvement of the private sector in all of these economic activities is essential to the success and sustainability of this market access initiative. Equally essential is the role government plays in facilitating and supporting an enabling environment for business connections to be made.”
In collaboration with the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, and PT Sarinah, NSLIC has been assisting farmer groups from Siau Island, North Minahasa, Minahasa, South Minahasa, Bone, Bulukumba, Sinjai, Enrekang, Luwu, and East Luwu Regency to prepare the spices related information, data and specifications and to issue the spices catalogues to facilitate the business matching and selling process.
Peter Walton, NSLIC/NSELRED Project Director, explained, “NSLIC/NSELRED is once again pleased to be at the forefront of efforts to build incomes for domestic Indonesian farmers and MSMEs, both women and men, through promoting increased access to domestic and international markets for locally grown produce, in this case the fabled spices of the island of Sulawesi, once known as the Celebes. It is only through concerted efforts such as these with both government and private sector support that long lasting business linkages will be created and the lives of the poor and disadvantaged will be improved. Canada is more than pleased to play its small part through the NSLIC/NSELRED Project.”
Sarinah as NSLIC/NSELRED Project’s partner whose vision is to nurture SMEs and unique local champion brands from diverse regions and creators in Indonesia may bring and enrich this Celebes Spice odyssey with the world, simply because Sarinah has the establishment, the management, the network, the leading retail SOEs together with her siblings under INJOURNEY establishment and can influence policy makers to curate and market Indonesia’s spices to the world.
Fetty Kwartati, CEO of PT Sarinah, expressed, “Collaboration with so many distinguished and capable institutions will smoothen the roadmap towards global spice trade. Our newly innovative trading and business facilitation set up is designed mostly for exports of highly curated domestic brands including spices, herbals and wellness products.”
Indonesia, which is also known and branded as spice islands and is one of the world’s home of diverse natural resources that await harvesting through innovative and sustainable product development that is rich with geographic authenticity, originality, locality and traceability.
The ten groups involved in this business meeting are comprised of more than 14,000 farmers who own more than 21,000 hectares of nutmeg, pepper, and clove plantations.
In order to explore new ideas and knowledge regarding the spice market, both the International Business Matching and the National Business Meeting also feature two talk shows inviting resource persons from relevant national ministries, the Indonesian Trade Attaches of Indonesian Embassies in Germany, the Netherlands, UAE, India, and Egypt, PT Sarinah, as well as the private sector.
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