Indonesia’s Food and Beverage Industry Struggle to Earn a Profit amid Pandemic

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s food and beverage industry has been left bruised and battered by the coronavirus pandemic as in other parts of the world.

The coronavirus pandemic has sent profits of the national food and beverage industry into  freefall, said Chairman of the Indonesian Culinary Entrepreneur Association (APKULINDO) Bedi Zubaedi.

“The drop in profits is worsened by the various restrictions on food service providers such as dine-in regulations as well as weakened consumer purchasing power. This has truly become the main challenge for the country’s culinary businesses.”

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Making things more difficult, Bedi stated that as profits dropped, the prices of raw materials increased, significantly affecting the bottom line for culinary businesses.

In spite of these challenges, Bedi highlighted how Indonesia’s food and beverage industry players remained creative by introducing more frozen food selections to the local market.

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The initiative proved beneficial as many Indonesians welcomed the availability of frozen food as people find themselves spending more time indoors.

“The public prefers buying frozen food as dine-in services have stopped. Most find themselves bored and this is the opportunity for the culinary industry.”

(Writer: Elsa Catriana | Editor: Bambang P. Jatmiko)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/12/16/141230126/pandemi-membuat-omzet-industri-kuliner-merosot