World Cup fever

Although the FIFA World Cup in South Africa is six months away, football afficionados in Jakarta can already grab the merchandise as several products have already hit Indomaret chain stores.

Pictures of the tournament official mascot Zakumi, an anthropomorphized leopard with green hair, have begun appearing on mugs, T-shirts, piggy banks and drinking bottles, and are sold on store racks.

Nenny Kristyawati, the spokeswoman of Indomaret, however said that not all merchandise would be immediately available.

“We plan to sell 300 kinds of merchandise, but most are being manufactured overseas. We hope by mid-January that merchandise will be available in stores,” said Kristyawati. Among World Cup souvenirs not available yet include hats, pins, pens and Zakumi puppets.

According to Indomaret management, 70% of merchandise is made overseas, while the rest is made in Indonesia.

Nenny said that the cheapest merchandise on offer is the piggy banks, selling for Rp 10,000 (USD1) each, while the most expensive are replicas of the World Cup trophy, selling for Rp 2 million (USD1,100) each.

Indomaret management expect to see merchandise sales reaching Rp 1 billion (USD110,000) by July this year. Billions of viewers are expected to tune in to the event’s 64 games.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will take place in South Africa, and will run from June 11 until July 11.

Indomaret has won the right to operate the FIFA World Cup 2010 Official Event stores in all 4,000 of its retail outlets across Indonesia. About 43% of their stores are located in Greater Jakarta.