Great Giant Foods (GGF) participated in the Foodex Japan 2021 event held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture from March 9 to 12, 2021. Foodex Japan is Japan’s leading food and beverage exhibition with a history of more than 45 years, with exhibitors over from 90 countries. Although located in Japan, both participants and buyers have the opportunity to develop their business throughout the exhibition in person and online.

Foodex Japan organizers consider it important to network with potential buyers, first through online meetings and then move on to further business. By combining the two methods, both exhibitors and buyers have more business meeting opportunities regardless of time and place.

Agricultural Attache of the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo Sri Nuryanti said “Food Expo Japan (Foodex) 2021 is one of the largest international food and beverage exhibitions in the world, attended by participants from various continents. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, Indonesia along with 32 countries from the European continent, 5 countries from the Middle East region, 15 countries from the African continent, 19 countries from the Asian continent and Australia, and 19 countries from the Americas participate in this hybrid Foodex 2021. .”

All participants were represented by importing companies in Japan. It is hoped that by including food and beverage products in Foodex 2021, the company will be more
known, wide market, and introduce new products by promoting product samples in the Indonesian Pavilion.

“Through Great Giant Foods, PT Great Giant Pineapple comes with fresh pineapples and bananas under the Oriji brand as well as processed products of canned pineapple and canned fruit,” said Sri Nuryanti, who is often called Ibu Inung.

Meanwhile, GGF Sales and Marketing Managing Director Josep Lay said “GGF would like to thank you very much for having been given the opportunity by the relevant parties to be able to participate in this exhibition. PT Great Giant Pineapple (PT GGP) itself has been in the business of exporting canned pineapple for a long time
Currently, our canned pineapple products dominate the Japanese market share of up to 23%. As for fresh fruit products, we have started exporting to Japan since 2015. We hope that PT GGP’s products can contribute to bringing foreign exchange for Indonesia.”

Indonesia’s participation in this exhibition is a collaboration between the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo and the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, Bank Indonesia Tokyo, Indonesia Trade Promotion Center Osaka, and the ASEAN Japan Center in expanding the existence and increasing Indonesian exports.

Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Heri Akhmadi when opening the Indonesian Pavilion said that the 46th Foodex 2021 exhibition is expected to be an opportunity to introduce Indonesian products more broadly to Japanese and foreign consumers as an alternative source of new food and beverage supply.

The Chancellor of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Prof. Dr. Arif Satria, SP, MSi visited PT Great Giant Pineapple (GGP) Terbanggi Besar, Central Lampung on Friday, March 5, 2021. The Chancellor of IPB was accompanied by the Vice-Chancellor for Business Innovation, Head of the Institute for Science and Technology, Prof. Dr. Erika Budiarti Laconi, Dean of the Vocational School Dr. Arief Daryanto, Director of Cooperation with the Alumni Association of IPB Dr. Syarifah Iis Aisyah, and Assistant Chancellor of IPB Rici was warmly received by all IPB alumni who have built a career at GGP.

Present with the Chancellor of IPB and his entourage including Managing Director of Production Wayan Ardana, Head of Corporate Affairs Welly Soegiono, Head of Processed Pineapple Plantation Imanudin, GOFF Plantation Division Head Supriyono Loekito, Sustainability Sub Div Head Arief Fatulah, PG 1 Sub Div Head Ichwan Karim, Quality Assurance Division Head Ketut Isatriyanto, Corporate Affairs Lampung Sub-Div Head Hendri Tanujaya, ITN BU Head Kevin Rahardja, Cannery Sub-Division Head Zulfahmi, and Packing House Plant 1 Dep Head Edwin Bahari.

In his remarks, Arief Satria said that IPB had long collaborated with GGP in various matters such as land analysis, environmental analysis, and production processes. “IPB will expand its cooperation with GGP. In practice, we can learn from each other. GGP’s advanced technology
IPB can adopt it as input and vice versa,” said Arief.

IPB tries to implement this collaboration in the form of education because IPB has land that needs to be immediately utilized for research and academic purposes. In addition, IPB also has the Regional Representatives Scholarship program (BUD), where the children of GGP employees can study at IPB with various undergraduate programs. During the one day visit, the group had the opportunity to see firsthand the pineapple canning process at the Cannery, the pineapple harvesting process at Plantation Group 1, the process at Packing House Banana 14, and to see the cattle breeding activities of PT Great Giant Livestock. With the arrival of the Rector of IPB at GGP, it is hoped that it can increase the existing cooperation.

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki and Minister of Agrarian Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) Sofyan A. Djalil accompanied by Lampung Governor Arinal Djunaidi reviewed the partnership pattern of PT Great Giant Pineapple (GGP) Terbanggi Besar, Central Lampung with the Banana Mas Farmer Group Tanggamus Regency on Sunday, February 28, 2021. The group saw firsthand the Pisang Mas cultivation garden in Sumber Rejo Village and Packing House 01 Arjuna Pekon Sailing Farmer Group managed by the Green Makmur Farmer Cooperative.

Head of Corporate Affairs GGP Welly Sugiono said that the company has partnered with banana farmers in Tanggamus Regency since 2017 with only 5 farmers but now it has reached 800 farmers with a partnership area of ​​400 hectares.

“GGP applies the Create Shared Value (CSV) concept, meaning that this collaboration is not profit sharing but value sharing. What is the value to the company and the value to the farmers,” said Welly.

Lampung Governor Arinal Djunaidi also appreciated the cooperation of farmers with GGP which already has a wide market share. The governor supports and hopes that Pisang Mas and other agricultural products can be spread throughout Lampung.

“GGP already has technology and market. Lampung has extraordinary agricultural potential, there is still a lot of land in Lampung, there are around 35 million ha. I think this banana can be developed evenly in all districts in Lampung in the future, “said Arinal.

“This partnership system is very good and this is one of our strategies in encouraging MSMEs to advance to class. We also have a social forestry program in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK) where each KK can manage 2 ha of land for 35 years and build corporate farming,” said the Indonesian Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki.

“We came here to see firsthand the export quality of Banana Mas cultivation produced by farmers through a partnership with GGP. This is very good, the Ministry of ATR / BPN in this case supports agrarian reform so that this concept can be developed in other areas, “said Sofyan Djalil.

Suroto, “No Retirement For Farmers”

At a young age, Suroto (54) is getting more and more excited to be a farmer. Becoming one of the Pisang Mas partnership farmers in partnership with PT Great Giant Pineapple (GGP) further strengthens his determination to continue to grow and develop Pisang Mas cultivation.

“If I was working, I should have retired, but I am excited to join Pisang Mas’ partnership with GGP. The more you work, the more you will get results,” said Suroto while waiting for the arrival of the Ministers at Pekon Sumber Rejo on Sunday, February 28, 2021.

Suroto began partnering with GGP to plant Pisang Mas since 2017 and joined the Arjuna Farmer Group which manages Packing House (PH) 01 in Pekon Sumber Mulyo, Sumber Rejo District, Tanggamus Regency. Currently, on his private land, he is caring for 1,300 Mas Pisang stems. In addition, he also helped foster the care of 5,000 bananas belonging to the farmers who joined him.

As a farmer, this humorous man admits that he has carried out various farming activities, starting with coffee, cocoa, rice, and vegetable crops, but always loses when harvesting because the price is uncertain. He even admitted that he had destroyed his crops because the selling price was very low.

“Joining this partnership feels comfortable. Harvest is purchased according to the contract price, if you want to get a lot, you just need to increase the number of plants. That’s why I’m interested, how many tons of harvest will still be bought, so farmers can pursue as many targets as possible, “said Suroto.

Starting from seeds, work tools, and extension workers are facilitated by the company so that farmers can take care of their plants optimally. Seedlings are given from tissue culture so that they can be counted for target pursuit and good growth power. From the weeds, the growth is not uniform and the harvest cannot be done simultaneously. Suroto hopes to get the opportunity to have his own PH to develop this partnership. According to him, the presence of PH is very helpful in convincing farmers because the container already exists.