Bandar Seri Begawan. Bruneian small businesses are wishing to tap into the ASEAN market, including Indonesia, as Bandar Seri Begawan became the host of the biennial gathering for Southeast Asian and European ministers.

For Brunei, the ASEAN-EU talks on April 27-28 were a chance for the country’s small-scale businesses to gain exposure to international markets. Guests would pass by the strategically placed booths run by the local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) before they entered the conference room. Kitani Taste was one of the businesses picked to promote its Indian-inspired snack maruku to the foreign guests, some of whom had come from Indonesia. Noorfitriah Hafiizah of Kitani Taste revealed to the Jakarta Globe that the snack was a family recipe. 

In the 1980s, many Indian and Chinese families made Brunei their home. Bruneian housewives around that time would often come together to learn cooking as their husbands worked outside. This decades-old recipe wants to make its way to foreign palates, and Kitani Taste realizes that Indonesia has a huge appetite for snacks.

“The maruku is similar to [the cracker] kerupuk. … We wish we can export [our snacks].  Maybe Indonesia, because it is a good market for food [products],” Noorfitriah said on Monday.

The business -- owned by her mother-in-law Maiyani Aliyani -- sells the maruku at a price tag of BND 3 ($2.35) and BND 8 ($6.26), depending on how big the packaging is. 

About 20 steps from Kitani Taste’s stall was Crafts by Sonna. Handwoven bags of vibrant colors and different sizes filled every corner of her booth. The owner Hensona told the Globe that her business had targeted different age demographics. She has bigger bags for the “ibu-ibu” or mothers to do their grocery shopping. There are also sling bag options for the youth. Like Noorfitriah, Hensona admitted that she had not sold any bag to Indonesia, but she is no newbie in selling her products overseas.

“We have sent some bags to Thailand and even Dubai,” Hensona said, while describing the Emirati metropolis as its major market with around 500 pieces delivered for an expo.

“Thailand is quite challenging [to penetrate] because the bags [there] have similar designs like ours. But if God is willing, I'd like to go to Indonesia [for the local exhibitions].”

Both sellers told the Globe that the Bruneian government had provided backing for MSMEs to unlock new markets, including by taking local businesses to overseas exhibitions. 

Despite the huge interest, Indonesia-Brunei trade had dropped by more than half to $376 million in 2025. Trade numbers had also been on a downtrend, tumbling from $94.5 million in January-February 2025 to $68.9 million the following year, Indonesian official statistics showed. Indonesia’s non-oil and gas imports from Brunei have been on a positive trajectory, rising from $70.6 million (2024) to $96 million (2025). The figure also rose around 16% year-on-year to $18.8 million in the first two months of 2026.

The two ASEAN economies have signed the world’s largest trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. This pact committed members to gradually eliminate the tariff rates on traded goods between one another. The ASEAN-EU talks in Brunei also ended with a commitment to pursue a region-to-region free trade agreement, but they have not decided when they would begin the negotiations.

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