CBI (the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries) recently launched its new export development project in Indonesia. In this project CBI cooperates with the German Import Promotion Desk (IPD) and the Indonesian Ministry of Industry. Robbie Hogervorst joined IPD and CBI’s mission to launch the project. 100 companies producing and exporting essential oils, botanical extracts and seaweed extracts participated in two national workshops. During these workshops the participants learned about opportunities on the EU market and requirements to reach this market. Moreover, they heard how the project could support them to enter Europe successfully with sustainable, traceable and value-added products.
In addition, the mission built capacities of the local expert team to spread the word to additional companies, in particular outside of Java. The team met with sector associations to discuss how the project could help these associations reach their objectives. For example improved advocacy, better service delivery to members, and tackling sector level bottlenecks such as buyer perceptions in Europe. Finally, Robbie visited 5 companies to conduct pre-audits together with the local experts. These visits aimed to pilot a new CBI-IPD pre-audit format and to train the expert team on pre-audit methodology.