Holiday Ayo - The food and beverage industry (mamin) is one of the important sectors that supports the performance of the non-oil and gas processing industry.

In the first quarter of 2022, the food and beverage industry contributed more than a third or 37.77 percent of the GDP of the non-oil and gas processing industry.

"The role of the food and beverage industry sector will have a significant impact on the non-oil and gas processing industry as well as the national GDP," said Director General of Agro Industry of the Ministry of Industry Putu Juli Ardika as cited from Republika.co.id, Tuesday (5/7).

He said the food and beverage industry grew by 3.75 percent in the first quarter of 2022 or higher than the first quarter of 2021 which reached 2.45 percent.

"The food and beverage industry is one sector that gets development priorities according to the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap," he said.

In terms of international trade, he said, the export of food and beverage products until the first quarter of 2022 reached 10.92 billion US dollars, including palm oil, and experienced a positive trade balance when compared to imports of food and beverage products in the same period of 3.92 billion dollars US.

Putu added, in terms of investment, until the first quarter of 2022, the realization of investment for the food and beverage industry sector reached IDR 19.17 trillion. Consisting of Domestic Investment (PMDN) of IDR 9.34 trillion and USD 684.98 million for Foreign Investment (PMA).

According to him, the performance of the food and beverage industry, which has begun to improve, cannot be separated from the hard work of all stakeholders. Starting from the relevant ministries and institutions to the industry.

"So that it can produce positive growth even though it is affected by the pandemic," he said.

Then as an effort to suppress the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has launched the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program which aims to protect, maintain, and improve the economic capacity of business actors in running their business during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through the implementation of this policy, it is hoped that the performance of the food and beverage industry, which before the pandemic was able to grow by around 7 percent to 9 percent, can be achieved.

The Director General of Agro Industry stated that several PEN policies have been issued by the government, including the provision of Government Borne Import Duties for several raw material commodities for the food and beverage industry in 2021. The aim is to encourage increased utility and industrial competitiveness, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.