INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said that the food industry managed to record production performance above expectations in Q2 / 2017 by 7.04 percent (YoY) for the Large and Medium Scale Industry (IBS) group. Meanwhile, for the Small Scale Micro Industry group (IMK) did not escape the positive trend by achieving production growth of 5.82 percent.

The Minister of Industry, Airlangga Hartarto, said that the national food and beverage industry needs to further expand the export share of both traditional and new markets in an effort to boost its performance. In addition, the breakthrough innovation of products produced so that can be in demand by consumers in the country and abroad.

Moreover, Airlangga continued, this sector has an important role in the development of national industry, especially its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of non-oil industry.

BPS shows that high growth of food production industry contributes significantly to the overall production growth of the manufacturing industry in Q2 / 2017 by 4.00 percent for Large and Medium Scale Industries and 2.50 percent for Small and Micro Scale Industries.

Looking back from the data on business units issued by BPS, the food industry contributed significantly to 25 percent or a quarter of the total Large and Medium Manufacturing Industry business unit as a whole.

Even for the Micro and Small Scale Industries, the food industry is dominant with the number of business units reaching more than 1.5 million of total business unit IMK manufacturing industry as a whole.

The most important thing for this industry is the availability of raw materials so as to encourage investment continues to grow. The government has provided business licensing permit for industry players including small and medium industry sectors, Airlangga explained, Friday (4/8/2017).

The micro and small scale food industry is able to absorb more than 3.6 million people.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Entrepreneurs (GAPMMI) Adhi S. Lukman Optimistic target growth of the food and beverage industry set by the Ministry of Industry, can be achieved until the end of 2017.

"We expect, the market condition after Idul Fitri will increase again, because it becomes a signal of the growth target of food and beverage industry this year," he said.

Adhi said, in addition to the decline in public purchasing power, which also affects industry growth is a psychological factor of the current condition. "This is a psychological factor because many people are waiting for the rules, such as land prolonged taxes, tightening tax oversight after tax amnesty," he added.

According to him, many business actors refrain from investing and expanding, including the food and beverage industry. Nevertheless, Adhi believes the provincial minimum wage increase (UMP) will encourage people's purchasing power.

Rising commodity prices will boost the growth of many companies so that people's purchasing power will also increase, he explained.