JAKARTA – A leading Indonesian palm oil producer is cooperating with the Indonesian Tourism Academy (Akpindo) to educate students on products derived from palm oil, a press report said on Monday (8/1/2018).
“This support is to advance culinary education in our Motherland,” Narayana Kusuma Widjaja, Head of Indonesia Industrial and Export Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food, was quoted as saying in company press release according to Kompas.
Speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the academy director, Muhamad Arsyad, Widjaja said that three palm oil products in the form of margarine are being used in the cooperation. They are all produced by Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food, through its business entity PT SMART Tbk.
The education centers on how to promote the positive image of local palm oil products, such as the margarine. Widjaja said that this was deemed as important so that the students, especially in tourism and the culinary faculties could obtain the right information about Indonesian palm oil.
“This cooperation with an education institution is for us very important, so that the right, accurate and comprehensive information can be given to those who will later use and process these palm oil product, amid the black campaign overseas targeting Indonesian palm oil,” Widjaja said.
Arsyad said that the margarines will be used in supporting the pastry, international bakery and cake decoration courses at the academy.
Widjaja added that the cooperation also provided the opportunity for students to visit the SMART Global Research and Development Center in Marunda, North Jakarta.
“We are conducting product research and development there, One of them is on developing new formulas of our products by eliminating the trans fat without scarifying the quality of the product,” he said.
He said that the cooperation with Apkindo was the third such cooperation with schools or tourism or culinary academies. The company already has ongoing cooperation with the Majapahit Tourism Academy in Surabaya, East Java and the Bali Culinary Pastry School. The cooperation in Surabaya was signed in March last year, while the one in Bali was signed one month later.