Taiwan health industry targeting Indonesian market

2012/06/28 22:55:39  Jakarta, June 28 (CNA) Taiwan's health industry is eyeing the Indonesian market and its burgeoning middle class consumer base, said a member of a Taiwanese trade delegation to the Southeast Asian country Thursday.  The delegation of over 100 representatives from 68Taiwanese companies, organized by the Ministry of EconomicAffairs, is visiting Indonesia, where they participated in atrade promotion event in the capital city of Jakarta.  Besides executives from the chemical, construction materials, electrical and mechanical industries, representatives of several companies from the health industry were in the delegation.  This is the first time a nutritional supplement company has been invited to take part in an official foreign investment mission, said Tseng Sheng-lin, a member of the delegation and representative of the supplement company.  Tseng noted many Indonesian buyers were interested in Lingzhi mushroom products, which are popular Chinese herbal medicines.  An Chih-chung, representative of a hyaluronic acid company, said there are a lot of opportunities in Indonesia, especially in the aftermath of the European debt crisis, because developed markets have reached a bottleneck and developing markets have more potential.  An said the company's hyaluronic acid products were targeting high-end consumer markets in Indonesia because Taiwanese productswere of a higher quality and had fair prices.  Indonesia's growing economy has produced more jobs and a growing middle class consumer base, An said, adding his firm will target the its middle class.  Hsun Hsi-tai, a general manager of a health food company, said Indonesia's large population of over 248 million people and strong consumer base are the reasons his company has participated in MOEA-led delegations to the country in the last three years.  Wang Hui-chen, a general manager of an aromatherapy biotechnology company, said many Indonesian companies found the combination of aromatherapy and medicine a new idea and not only wanted to buy the Taiwanese products, but also learn how to make them.  Indonesia was Taiwan's 11th largest trading partner in 2011, with bilateral trade reaching US$12.26 billion. Taiwan exports to Indonesia valued US$4.8 billion last year, and the country imported US$7.4 billion of goods from Indonesia.  As of the first quarter of 2012, Taiwan was the ninth largest investor in Indonesia, with US$15.5 billion of investments in the Southeast Asian country.