Jakarta. Bulgarian food producer Bella Group recently announced that it would build a $38-million meat processing plant in Indonesia in a joint venture deal with Indonesian company Garuda Mitra Unggul (GMU).

The meat factory is part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Bella Group and GMU inked at the Indonesia-Europe Business Forum (IEBF) earlier this week. Over the next 12 months, Bella and GMU will conduct market research to decide the location of the plant.

“We are still investigating the location. We cannot give more details at the moment,” Dimitar Mitev, the chief operating officer at Bella, said shortly after the MoU signing.

When asked by the Jakarta Globe if the Bulgarian food giant already had a location in mind, Mitev said: “Yes, but I’d rather keep it a secret at the moment.”

GMU president director Hendro Santoso also did not comment on the plant’s production capacity. However, Hendro hinted that the processing plant could export the processed meat to other ASEAN markets.

“So it is not just the Indonesian market. We can potentially reach Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, among others,” Hendro said.

Rendang Goes to Europe

The freshly inked MoU also includes a four-year contract worth $34 million for the GMU to help supply spices for Bella’s rendang production.

Bella already has a running factory dedicated to producing rendang -- a slow-cooked beef curry dish from Padang, West Sumatra -- in Bulgaria. The factory boasts a monthly production capacity of up to 600 tons.

According to Indonesian Ambassador to Bulgaria Iwan Bogananta, Bella will receive a delivery of 40 tons of rendang spices per month starting in Nov. 2023. The rendang factory is also in close proximity to other markets such as Serbia, Romania, Turkiye, and Greece. Its location is expected to make Bulgaria a hub for Indonesian spices to enter Europe.

The packaging of Bella's rendang will have the "Wondeful Indonesia" logo and get halal-certified. Consumers can also scan the QR code slapped on the packaging to learn more about the Indonesian cuisine's origin.

“This [rendang production in Bulgaria] aligns with the government’s ‘Indonesia Spice Up the World’ program,” Iwan said.

As the name suggests, the program sees Indonesia promoting its spices globally. Indonesia has set a goal to reach $2 billion in spice exports by 2024. The spice-rich nation also aims to have 4,000 Indonesian restaurants across the globe by the same year.