The Indonesian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Albania and North Macedonia Iwan Bogananta said that his party had succeeded in securing an investment agreement with Bella Ltd worth USD 3 million. The leading company in Bulgaria will distribute rendang to other regions in Europe. "We will make Bulgaria a hub or liaison for the rendang market to Europe, especially the Balkan countries," he said in a press statement, Sunday (6/2/2022). Iwan explained that the plan became more concrete during his visit to Botevgrad, a city in western Bulgaria this week. In a city about 50 kilometers from the capital Sofia, a rendang factory will be built to approach market access, such as Serbia, Turkey and Greece. "Our arrival is to follow up on the results of the signing of the cooperation between Bella Ltd and William Wongso [culinary expert] in November 2021. We saw firsthand the factory facilities that have been prepared by Bella Ltd, as well as discussed the technical production of rendang here," he explained.
The area of 20,000 square meters is a newly built factory specifically for producing various kinds of meat products. Around 5,000 square meters of which are prepared for the flow of Indonesian rendang production. "The total production capacity per month is more than 600 tons. Especially for this factory in the Botevgrad region, it has been specially prepared to produce rendering, from processing to packaging. Later it will be equipped with halal certification," he explained. Iwan explained that later the seasoned beef would be imported directly from Indonesia to be further processed into rendang at the factory. "In the future, Bulgaria will become a trading hub for the European market as a whole, and we also plan to reach the Middle East," he explained. Iwan said that the two-way investment concept with Bella Ltd is a new role model for the development of the export market for Indonesian products so that they can be closer to the market. The Covid-19 pandemic that has been going on for the past 2 years has changed the business climate a lot, especially exports which have slumped. "This is partly due to soaring shipping costs, which affects production costs. Of course this has a big impact, especially for SME business players," he explained.
After the success of rendang, in the future his party will develop cooperation for other potential Indonesian products. "The production and storage facilities that they [Bella Ltd] have are spread over several areas. We must use them properly, so that other Indonesian culinary products are increasingly recognized internationally," he said. The investment itself is a support for the Indonesia Spice Up the World program launched by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). In that speech, Jokowi was determined to restore the glory of Indonesian spices, which have been very popular with the world for centuries. According to the President, the superiority of Indonesian spices must continue to be introduced to all corners of the world. The delicacy and taste of processed Nusantara cuisine must also be spread. Some of them are through increasing exports of rendang seasoning, fried rice, satay, and gado-gado. "Innovate products, improve packaging, branding, and market expansion, so that Indonesian spice-processed food becomes an increasingly superior export commodity," said President Jokowi.
