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Local or imported: Jakarta shoppers pragmatic, not patriotic
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Local women weave handbags during an exhibition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) products at Cenderawasih Sports Hall in Papua on Aug. 23, 2022. To support the Love Indonesian Products movement, Bank Indonesia invited 60 MSMEs to the event, which lasted until Aug. 27. (Antara/Sakti Karuru)
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any supermarkets in Indonesia mark imported products with labels attached identifying them as such, but do consumers care much where the goods they purchase come from? The Jakarta Post has gone around town asking.
“I use a lot of imported products. Maybe that’s because I am class-conscious without being aware of it. In my head, using imported products automatically places me inside the community of the haves and [the globalists]. Although, when I think about it now, that view is totally wrong and counterproductive,” said Gabriel Alfarizie, a data science student.
Kaleb Sihombing, a 24-year-old law graduate living in Jakarta, said labels showing whether a product was imported or locally made were utterly irrelevant for routine consumption.
Only in certain cases, does the “imported” label signify quality, such as with fruit, he added, wondering aloud why Indonesia could not produce fruit “of equal standard” being a tropical and agricultural country.
“Maybe I still have an 'inlander' mentality by saying that imported fruit is better,” Kaleb said with a laugh, sarcastically using a derogatory term from Dutch colonial times to refer to indigenous Indonesians.
Monica Wijaya, a private-sector employee residing in Jakarta, has a very different view when it comes to food. She said she would choose local products as often as possible because of what she believed to be a lower carbon footprint, lower price and less use of preservatives.
“Unfortunately, in supermarkets, most fresh products like fruit and vegetables are not labeled [to show] where they’re from. So, as a consumer, I feel uninformed,” said Monica, after explaining that she generally preferred imported products for nonfood purchases
