Indonesian banana producer expects exports of 1.8m boxes in 2017
Besides producing Cavendish bananas, Nusantara Tropical Farm also cultivates guavas, dragon fruits and pineapples on its 3,757-hectare plantation in Lampung.
The key strategy for Nusantara Tropical Farm, to boost its export performance in 2017, is to add new export markets to its portfolio. Over the past couple of years the company successfully managed to take some market share from the Philippines in Asia in terms of fruit exports. However, Stefanus Manukiley, Director at the farm, said the company will raise efforts to enlarge its export volumes in 2017, both to new markets and to its existing export markets such as Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, and Southeast Asian nations.
One key market is Singapore. Manukiley said his company already exports fruit to Singapore. However, the volumes are low, and therefore he is eager to boost exports to Singapore. Another market that is on their priority list is Japan. In 2016 the company shipped 400,000 boxes of Cavendish bananas to Japan. This year, it aims to double those exports.
Meanwhile, Nusantara Tropical Farm aims to produce 6.07 million boxes of Cavendish bananas in 2017, up from 5.1 million boxes of bananas in the preceding year. If it manages to export 1.8 million boxes, then it would imply that around 30 percent of production will be exported abroad in 2017. The remainder to be sold on the domestic market. In the years ahead, the company wants to see its exports grow continuously. By 2020 it aims to export 6 -7 million boxes of bananas.
