Indonesia has a variety of spice commodities and typically processed food products with authentic tastes. Before independence, Indonesia was known as a tropical country with fertile soil and an ideal place for growing spices. Indonesian spices and seasonings have even become a cultural heritage in the culinary world.
In order to raise again the challenge of Indonesian cooking spices in the eyes of the world, the government through the cooperation of various courts and institutions, organized the Indonesia Spice Up The World (ISUTW) program to promote Indonesian cuisine, as well as promote local Indonesian brands of spices and seasoning products.
“The Ministry of Industry supports the ISUTW program as one of the efforts to increase the market for Indonesian spices and seasonings through domestic exhibitions, local marketplaces, and global marketplaces,” said Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in Jakarta, Monday (15/8).
The Minister of Industry revealed, ISUTW is a collaborative program of all stakeholders in raising the popularity of the richness of Indonesian spices and seasonings. This program is motivated by the fading expansion of Indonesian cooking spices compared to oriental, Thai, and Vietnamese cooking spices.
In fact, the attention of the world’s citizens toward Indonesian culinary tastes continues to increase. This is evidenced by a large amount of foreign media coverage on the advantages of the diversity and delicacy of Indonesian food preparations.
“Currently there are 1,177 Indonesian restaurant outlets abroad, but this number has not been effective in bringing back the popularity of Indonesian spices and seasonings. Through this ISUTW, we hope that the export value of Indonesian spices and seasonings can reach USD 2 billion and there will be as many as 4,000 Indonesian restaurants around the world by 2024,” said Agus.
The ISUTW program has been designed as a strategy to introduce Indonesian spices and seasoning products abroad, including developing a network of Indonesian restaurants abroad. “This is a form of Indonesian gastro diplomacy, through the reactivation and addition of Indonesian restaurants abroad as well as standardizing the taste of Indonesian cuisine. Another strategy is to utilize hotel restaurant chains in foreign countries to serve Indonesian culinary delights,” continued Agus.
Through ISUTW, Indonesia will promote five national specialties, namely rendang, fried rice, satay, Soto, and Gado-Gado. The reason is, these five types of food were recognized as World’s 50 Best Foods by CNN Travel in 2017-2021. Apart from that, other Indonesian culinary delights such as seafood are also added.
Later, thousands of Indonesian restaurants abroad will become showcases for local Indonesian branded spices and seasoning products. Meanwhile in Indonesia, mini storefronts are set up in super-priority tourism destinations. Indonesian spices and seasoning products are also offered through a digital storefront (marketplace), which is connected to the ISUTW landing page as an acceleration of trade in Indonesian spices and seasoning products.
“ISUTW can also be a strategy to increase the competitiveness of the Indonesian spice and seasoning processing industry through easy access to raw materials, technology improvements, human resource competence (HR), and product quality,” said Agus.
