The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs released the export of 150 containers of MSME processed soap to six countries in Africa and the Middle East. This export is the result of the collaboration of PT Restu Graha Dana, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN), and the MSME Community Upgrading. Deputy for SMEs at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Hanung Harimba Rachman, hopes that this step will become a new spirit for SMEs to continue to be competitive and penetrate the global market. "This is one of our priorities for SMEs to enter the global market and this is what we will continue to encourage," said Deputy for UKM, KemenKopUKM, Hanung Harimba Rachman at the Export Launching of 150 Soap Containers, in Jakarta, Saturday (15/1/2022). Furthermore, Hanung explained that currently the government wants to increase the contribution of SME exports to 17 % in 2024. Meanwhile, Hanung said the contribution of SME exports only reached 15.6 %. According to him, to ensure the target of increasing export contribution, national SME players need cheaper logistics costs and faster export administration. "The scarcity of containers is a major problem for SMEs. As a result, transportation costs are expensive or costs have risen by 300 % and the risk of damage is very high due to the length of product storage," said Hanung. In addition to the scarcity of containers, Hanung said, another obstacle is the mapping of domestic demand or the absence of market intelligence to respond to product opportunities, product capacity, international certification, and the ease of export financing for SMEs. He also emphasized that Indonesia's export contribution was still far behind when compared to China, which had a 68 % contribution to SME exports and a logistics performance index of 3.61 %, and India with a 40 % contribution to SME exports and a logistics performance index of 3.18 %. "This shows the lack of time efficiency in fulfilling export documents and the lack of infrastructure support for Indonesian SMEs to export their products. This is our shared responsibility," said Hanung.
In building a conducive export ecosystem for SMEs, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs has also provided various programs, including the East SMESCO Hub to aggregate MSME products and cooperatives in eastern Indonesia, both for domestic and foreign target markets. In addition, the Kemenkop UKM also provides SMESCO Labo for skill enrichment for all small and medium businesses or industries. In this SMESCO Labo, several laboratory facilities are available, such as a mechanical lab, photography lab, food lab, and handycraft lab. "We also have a joint production house in the commodity of patchouli, rattan, biopharmaceuticals, coconut and cattle. Scheduled cargo transportation and subsidized logistics in collaboration with Garuda Indonesia. Export financing. International certification, quality certification ISO/HACCP, FSSC, BRC, Organic , and SVLK," said Hanung.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of PT Restu Graha Dana, Dian Prasetyo, said that the existence of this export shows that SMEs can contribute to increasing economic growth through exports. "We join hands to contribute to the Indonesian economy," said Dian. General Chairperson of the Upgrading MSME Community, Raden Tedy added that this export release is proof of the synergy between MSMEs and business actors to export soap with raw materials from MSMEs throughout Indonesia. "This soap has raw materials from palm oil, nutmeg and many more. We will also export other MSME products in the future," said Tedy.
