After thoughtfully selecting the participants of this year’s F&B Trade Mission to Jakarta, EIBN was conveying a warm and hearty welcome to the EU companies on Sunday evening at the welcome dinner. On this occasion, EIBN had the better chance to let itself get to know and EIBN should learn others more.

The next morning on 26th February which was also the first day of the F&B Trade Mission of 2018 in Jakarta began with an info-session meeting on importing F&B products in Indonesian market with the informative presentations by the National Agency of Drug and Food Control of the Republic of Indonesia (BPOM), Directorate General of Customs and Excise of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesian Retails Merchant Association (APRINDO), Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), the European Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia (EUROCHAM Indonesia), and DANONE International in Indonesia. This info-session gave all the participants the information and everything else that they might need at one go, with helpful hints to import products into the Indonesian market that was offered directly by Indonesian regulators and active key players on the territory and, therefore, giving the participants better understanding and certainty about their prospects in the market. After the information session, the participants had the chance to visit several leading retail markets in Indonesia, particularly Jakarta. The F&B Trade Mission began a site to the Ranch-Market Indonesia, one of prominent supermarkets selling upper price range imported products. The last site visit has landed at the biggest and leading retail market in the country: Carrefour Transmart Indonesia. The site visit was merely intended to offer a closer look on how the imported F&B products deal with today's Indonesian market challenges. The EU companies on this F&B Trade Mission mainly need to understand why adaptation measures are necessary, why the costs of some services may increase, and how they sensibly develop their business strategies before exporting products to Indonesia.

The following two days were focused to gain potential business partners for the participants of F&B Trade Mission. Escorted by the EIBN staff members, each EU Company had individual meetings with major local importers. The highlight of the day was definitely dedicated to the Indonesian government-owned company, Aerofood ACS – the leading all-in-one catering service in the country, among others, for serving all Garuda Indonesia’s flights worldwide as well as the international airlines at the Indonesian airports.

After the conclusion of the 2 days with individual meetings, several of the participants joined the Food, Hotel and Tourism Fair in Bali from March 1-3, where EIBN was hosting a European Food Pavilion, supporting the participating companies in displaying their products. Overall, the overall event was a success completed by each party involved on this F&B Trade Mission as well as the EU Pavilion project at the trade show in Bali.

“Thank you for the conference and for arranging the customer meetings this week. I have a number of key takeaways

from the visit to Jakarta and am confident that there will be a positive impact for Dairygold over the medium to long term”

MARK KELLER

Head of Sales & Marketing

Food Ingredients

Dairygold

Ireland