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Industry Ministry official Reni Yanita. (ANTARA/ HO Biro Humas Kementerian Perindustrian/FR) - 

The Industry Ministry is enabling partnerships between small and medium industries (IKMs) and hotels as IKMs often encounter difficulties in partnering with private and other economic sectors and entering the global supply chain, an official said.

"This partnership facilitation is done so that these IKMs can raise their status and expand their market," ministry official Reni Yanita noted in a statement issued on Saturday.

"Their products can also be better known by tourists who stay in Indonesia's popular hotels," she added.

Lack of experience and networks is becoming a hurdle for IKM actors in expanding their market access, she noted. To this end, the ministry is helping IKMs partner with big industry and other economic sectors, she informed.

In 2021, the ministry managed to help 96 IKM actors through a business meeting with big industry and other sectors, which helped 18 IKMs to land partnerships, Yanita said.

One of the IKMs that managed to partner with a hotel was Haveltea Indonesia, a tea enterprise selling locally produced tea from Surabaya, East Java, she said. The enterprise partnered with Grand Mercure Surabaya, she added.

"CV Haveltea Indonesia was one of the 15 best IKMs in the 2021 Indonesia Food Innovation's end-product category," Yanita informed.

The ministry also encouraged IKM participants at the 2020-2021 Indonesia Food Innovation to register for a partnership curation with PT AAPC Indonesia (Accor Indonesia Group) at the end of the last year, she added.

The pre-partnership curation has been done since November 24, 2021, in a hybrid format, she informed. Under the program, participants sent and showcased their products that were then tested by Accor Indonesia's team, she added.

"The result of the cooperation with the hotel group that has thousands of hotel networks in several nations could become one of the important points and a big opportunity for Haveltea to rebrand their products," Yanita remarked.

Meanwhile, the collaboration of food and drink IKMs with a variety of hotels, restaurants, and cafés will continue this year, she disclosed.

After going through the curation process, food and drink IKMs will certainly be capable of improving their quality by following the market's taste and quality, she affirmed.

"There will certainly be changes and adjustments in the IKM products based on the needs of the hotels, restaurants, and cafés, such as changes in size, packaging, or rebranding," Yanita remarked//ANT