PT Aliet Green as high-end coconut food producer has decided to step up their marketing strategies by requesting a SES assignment in order to conduct a success market entry and fair trade in Germany with the help of german senior expert from SES back in 2019.
Q1: Could you briefly share with us what the purpose of the SES assignment was for Aliet Green?
A1: Aliet Green as a high-end organic coconut sugar producer did realize that we needed to step-up our 鈥榞ame鈥� in order to do market entry in European countries, especially in Germany. Beside of that we鈥檝e also wanted to participate in a fair trade there. Back then, we didn鈥檛 really have the resource and knowledge on how to plan and execute those things, we also heard that Germany got one of the hardest market to penetrate because German customer are very selective when it comes to buying a food product. In 2019, we gladly found an information regarding SES program and decided to enroll for the program.
Q2: How did EKONID as local SES representative support Aliet Green for the preparation and during the assignment?
A2: The role of the representative during the preparation and implementation of the program was important, the representative managed to bridge the necessary communication of Aliet Green and SES organization in Germany. We hope that EKONID as representative for SES in Indonesia could do more 鈥榣ink and match鈥� activities between small-medium sized companies (UMKM) and SES experts to establish a beneficial cooperation.
Q3: How would you describe your daily cooperation with the SES expert?
A3: The expert was proactive during the assignment. He helped us whenever we need an advice and solution, so that it made us easier solve our problems, specifically when we were facing marketing/sales issues. We were kind of worried at first when the expert came to our site, since senior expert could be categorized as elder in terms of age. But, he was surprisingly fit and did a really great job during the assignment, we were grateful to have worked with him.
Q4: What was the most challenging part and how did you manage to overcome it together with the SES expert?
A4: Regarding that, the most challenging part was when we tried to match the suitability of our food products for German customer by doing food tasting with the expert. It was challenging because at the first time we鈥檝e been developing our products with a strong 鈥榣ocal taste鈥� identity, but in order to overcome the challenge we鈥檝e developed and adjusted our products to be acceptable by all kinds of customer whether local customer or overseas customer, so that we don鈥檛 need to worry about the taste of our products once we do the market entry.
Q5: What kind of overall benefit did your company get from the assignment of the SES expert?鈥�
A5: The overall benefit of the assignment is that now we have a deeper understanding of EU market structure and its supply chains, esp. in Germany, as well as suitable market strategies by transfer of knowledge and advisory from SES expert.
Q6: Would you recommend SES to other companies/institutions that might be interested in this program?
A6: Of course it鈥檚 a yes, we think that this program is recommended and beneficial for all types of companies, especially for small-medium sized companies. Since we know that most small-medium sized companies don鈥檛 have the knowledge, opportunity, and resource when it comes to expand their product overseas. By doing a cooperation with SES, we could maximize the potential of our products and widen the opportunity for them to be exported overseas, esp. to Germany with the help SES expert on formulating a suitable market entry strategy.
Q7: 鈥疭ince the termination of the SES assignment, which measures did Aliet Green take to fulfill the recommendations that the SES expert gave?鈥�
A7: As I鈥檝e mentioned before, SES expert has provided us several inputs for our objective, hence now we鈥檙e confident and excited to introduce our products to German customers. We鈥檝e also managed to exhibit our products at the BioFach trade fair 2019, in Germany. Furthermore, we鈥檙e keen to implement a follow up strategy for market entry even more, but up until now it鈥檚 being on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Hopefully once the pandemic is easing we could implement the strategy and achieve our objective for market entry.