Resilience of Women Producers and Retail Intelligence Strategy: Bandung Culinary Gastrodiplomacy at Bandung Food Centre Al Wakrah, Qatar

Abstract

Gastro diplomacy through local food and beverage products produced by Indonesian Small, and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has massive potential in the global market, including in Qatar. The sustainability of these SMEs' supply depends on the resilience of upstream producers and downstream retail governance. This community service project uses an integrated Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to explore the role of female culinary SMEs in Bandung as primary suppliers, while also providing retail intelligence interventions in their product displays at the Bandung Food Centre (BFC) Al Wakrah, Qatar. Qualitative data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews with nine local female producers, followed by selection of retail quality at overseas partner locations. The research results in the upstream sector indicate that female culinary SMEs are driven by family economic resilience, where they master local gastronomic production techniques (such as cireng, basreng, and batagor) through self-taught methods and are able to create a multiplier effect for their surrounding environment. In the downstream sector, the application of Indonesian Retail Intelligence through ABC Analysis has successfully identified the circulation of product movements (such as tempeh chips and basreng as fast-moving goods), reduced dead stock numbers, and optimized layouts through visual merchandising engineering (Planogram). Furthermore, the innovation of bilingual shelf talkers (English-Arabic) has proven effective as a cross-cultural educational medium, increasing the understanding and purchasing power of non-diaspora consumers towards Indonesian gastronomic products. This synergy between women's empowerment at the local level and retail intelligence at the global level is a strong model of sustainable gastro diplomacy.