ECONOMIC GROWTH - JAKARTA. The contribution of the food and beverage (F&B) industry to gross domestic product (GDP) increased steadily over the past four years in spite of the decrease of its growth last year, according to the Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers Association (GAPMMI).
“The F&B industry’s contribution to GDP increased to 6.25 percent last year from 6.14 percent in 2017, 5.97 percent in 2016, 5.61 percent in 2015 and 5.32 percent in 2014,” said GAPMMI chairman Adhi Lukman.
Meanwhile, the industry’s growth reached its highest level of 9.49 percent in 2014 before slowing down to 7.54 percent in 2015. The growth increased again to 8.33 percent in 2016 and to 9.23 percent in 2017 before slowing down again to 7.91 percent in 2018.
Adhi told The Jakarta Post that 2018’s slowing down of the F&B industry’s growth was caused by the decline of palm oil production and prices.
The Industry Ministry's agroindustry director general, Abdul Rochim, said that in the first quarter of this year, the F&B industry’s contribution to GDP already reached 6.35 percent.
“The quarterly contribution of the F&B sector to the whole non-oil and non-gas industry was 31.6 percent,” he said.
Adhi said the country’s F&B production increased 6.77 percent in the first quarter of this year.
The Industry Ministry has projected that annual growth of the F&B industry will likely reach 9 percent in 2019 if the realization of investment in this sector reaches Rp 63 trillion.
In the first quarter alone, investment in the F&B sector rose to Rp 14.6 trillion from Rp 12.5 trillion in the same period of last year, Abdul said.
