Photo: Gro Arneberg Thoresen / Enebakk Avis
When Emmy Jørgensen came to Norway from Indonesia in the 1980s, she was no food expert. She is from Pariaman in West Sumatra, the home of Minangkabau cuisine and of rendang. With determination and hard work, she first became the owner of two restaurants. In 1991 she founded Scanesia, the company that has imported and sold food from her home country and the rest of Asia ever since.
"Food built a bridge between me and you"
That is what Emmy told the local newspaper Enebakk Avis in 2021, when Scanesia turned 30 and moved to new premises at Gran industrial area in Ytre Enebakk to grow. The head office and the warehouse that packs every Indonesia Store order are still there.
Awarded by Indonesia
The same year, Scanesia received the Primaduta Award 2021 from Indonesia's Ministry of Trade. The award goes to foreign companies that buy and promote Indonesian products over time, and only 25 companies worldwide were chosen that year.
Rendang from Padang to Norwegian shops
Rendang may be Indonesia's most famous dish, and CNN named it the best food in the world in both 2011 and 2017. Emmy wanted to make it known in Norway. Ready-made rendang with meat cannot be imported into Europe, so the answer was the spice paste: the same flavour, ready to cook at home.
On 29 August 2022, the Governor of West Sumatra sent around one tonne of rendang and kalio spice paste to Norway. The paste is made by the women's cooperative IKABOGA in Padang, and Emmy and the Indonesian ambassador followed the send-off live from Oslo. In 2024 came the third order, now under the brand Padang Kitchen.
Along the way, the recipe has been adjusted. Many Norwegians found rendang too spicy at first, so Emmy fine-tuned it several times. Today even several sushi restaurants in Norway have rendang on the menu.
"We have to show it to the world"
"We have to do something, we have to promote it to the world," Emmy said about rendang to the Indonesian news site Padangkita in 2024. In 2025 she told the radio station RRI that she still has a long journey ahead to promote rendang across Norway. Her dream is for rendang to become as well known as sushi, kimchi and pizza.
Indonesia Store, renewed
Indonesia Store has been Scanesia's online shop for several years, and it has now had its biggest makeover ever: a new look, pages in Norwegian, English and Indonesian, and its own rewards programme. Here you will find the same products Emmy has imported for years: the spice pastes from Padang Kitchen, Scanesia's own brand Emmy's Choice, which you can also find in Norwegian grocery stores such as Meny, Kiwi and Coop, and more than 140 other products from Indonesia and the rest of Asia. Want to know more? Read our full story on the About us page.
