|
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will soon be able to get
their goods on the shelves of top retailer Carrefour without having to
pay a listing fee, with the retailer agreeing to provide access for
SMEs as part of its CSR program.
"We will select SMEs with a regular supply capability to sell products
that are in line with the tastes of our customers," corporate affairs
director of Carrefour Indonesia, Irawan D. Kadarman, said Tuesday.
He said that the company expected the program would help support SME
growth.
The eligible SMEs would be exempted from paying trading-term fees,
which apply to other regular suppliers of the hypermarket. These are
administrative and other charges that must be paid by suppliers to
Carrefour.
Carrefour will only take the margin between the supplier price and the
retail price as its profit, said Irawan, adding that four product
categories would be eligible for the program; grocery, fresh food
(vegetables, fish), household equipment and textiles.
SMEs in Indonesia are known for their resilience, but financing, market
access and distribution problems are hampering their growth.
To help solve the marketing and distribution problems, the State
Ministry for Cooperatives and SMEs had previously established a
franchise business called SME'sComart with 48 outlets in Java.
Halomoan Tamba, assistant deputy for domestic trade at the state
ministry, said that SME'sComart used the same marketing systems as were
employed by established retailers to help sell SME products.
According to figures from the State Ministry for Cooperatives and SMEs,
Indonesia has around 44 million SMEs, representing 98 percent of the
country's business enterprises.
|
