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Bayer expands warehousing, production to boost exports
German-based pharmaceutical firm Bayer Indonesia is optimistic it will be able to export to at least 50 countries within the next three years as demand from overseas markets continues to increase, the companyâs executive has said
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erman-based pharmaceutical firm Bayer Indonesia is optimistic it will be able to export to at least 50 countries within the next three years as demand from overseas markets continues to increase, the company's executive has said.
Bayer Indonesia's health-care supply center head Safak Oner said Wednesday the company exports its products to 20 countries across the world, including Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Romania.
Currently, 25 percent of Bayer's overall production goes to the domestic market, while the remaining 75 percent is exported.
'Australia captured the biggest market at 17 percent, followed by the UK at 14 percent,' Oner said following the inauguration of the company's new warehouse, which was also attended by Industry Minister Saleh Husin.
Oner said the new targeted overseas markets included the US, Belarus and Russia. To support the plan, Bayer Indonesia has spent about US$8.8 million since early last year to expand its warehousing and production capacity.
With the new warehouse located at Bayer's 102,000 square-meter production facility area in Cimanggis, Depok, the company will be able to accommodate all its pharmaceutical production with 7,000 pallets, double the current 3,500 pallets.
The remaining ¤3.1 million ($3.4 million) of the total investment will be used to increase the production capacity of its effervescent products. 'The new facility is expected to start production next year,' Bayer Indonesia president director Ashraf Al-Ouf said.
The local unit of Germany's pharmaceutical giant Bayer Group targets to increase the production capacity of its effervescent filling up to 45 million tubes per year from the current 36.3 million tubes.
Bayer produces multivitamin effervescent tablets under the Redoxon and Calcium D Redoxon (CDR) brand names. In Indonesia, the tablets compete with PT Konimex's Protecal Defense and PT Pyridam Farma's Holisticare Ester-C. Bayer also produces analgesic drugs aspirin and Saridon as well as antifungal cream Canesten.
Meanwhile, Minister Saleh said Bayer Indonesia could be a stimulant for the pharmaceutical sector to increase exports of pharmaceutical products, ease reliance on imported multivitamins and absorb more employees.
'Our economic growth needs to be sustained also by non-mineral and gas sectors, like pharmaceutical and chemistry sectors,' he said after officially inaugurating the new warehouse.
According to the ministry's data, the pharmaceutical industry is among a few industries which booked higher sales this year as many industries, especially in the manufacturing sector, posted a decline in business.
In 2014, Saleh said the country's total exports of pharmaceutical products reached $532 million, 16.98 percent higher compared to the previous year. 'Unfortunately, imported products still dominated,' the minister said, citing data showing that the total value of imported products climbed 6.68 percent to $959 million, from $899 million in 2013.
'Around 90 percent of raw materials for our pharmaceutical products are still imported,' Saleh added.
Bayer's Oner added that the firm used imported raw materials, mostly from China and India, because Indonesia cannot provide raw materials with competitive quality.
'But of course we persuade Indonesia to be able to produce its own raw materials because the price will be less costly,' he added. (foy)
