VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (voinews.id): The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia (KJRI) Jeddah facilitates exporters from Indonesia and importers in Saudi Arabia so that business relations are established, especially in terms of providing food and beverage needs for Indonesian pilgrims.

This was conveyed by the Indonesian Consul General in Jeddah, Eko Hartono, in an interview with Voice of Indonesia, Wednesday (01/02).

According to Eko, the circulation of money specifically for food and beverages for pilgrims from Indonesia in 2022 will reach 500 billion rupiah from the total circulation of money from last year's pilgrimage activities which reached 15 trillion rupiah.

Therefore, the Indonesian Consulate General is trying to bring together exporters and importers from the two countries through the holding of the Hajj Expo Indonesia 2023, with the hope that as many business agreements can be made between the two parties during the exhibition which will take place from 1 to 2 February 2023.

Eko revealed that there were still relatively few products from Indonesia in Saudi Arabia and the challenge was the difficulty for Indonesian food and beverage products to be able to penetrate the market for this Middle Eastern country.

"Because the terms of price and quality cannot compete. There must be something wrong with our product, isn't it," Indonesian Consul General in Jeddah Eko Hartono.

"This is what we have to solve, how come it's not easy for us to penetrate the international market, including the Saudi market," Eko said.

Eko added, food and beverage products are part of catering, one of the 3 important aspects needed by pilgrims, apart from accommodation and transportation facilities.

At the Hajj Expo Indonesia this time, the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah invited Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from Indonesia and experienced aggregators in penetrating the Saudi Arabian market.

Apart from that, according to Eko, the demand for Indonesian food and beverage products is very high throughout the year, not only to meet the needs of Indonesian pilgrims, but also Umrah pilgrims from Indonesia. (VOI/GUS)