One of Indonesia’s major pineapple producers recently complained to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati about the difficulties encountered in exporting the company’s pineapples to China, one of the world’s largest buyers of tropical fruits.
The company had tried in vain to enter the Chinese market over at least the last 10 years, but the popular fruit cannot enter the Chinese market because it has not been included in the quarantine protocol agreement between both countries.
Had the agreement been in place, Indonesia could have generated at least US$50 million a year from pineapple exports alone. The complaint only illustrates the myriad of problems Indonesian farmers are facing in exporting their fruit, which is an irony because it is not in line with the government’s agenda to boost exports of non-oil and gas products, including fruits. It turns out the promotion of fruit farming has yet to resolve the core problems.
Indonesia has a lot of tropical fruit varieties. Indonesian pineapples, mangosteen, bananas, mangos and other fruits have filled not only Asian markets, but also those in Europe and the United States.
However, Indonesia is still lagging behind its ASEAN neighbors such as Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, which are billed as the world’s major exporters of tropical fruits. Compared with Vietnamese and Thai fruits, Indonesian products are less competitive not only because of their low quality but also expensive transportation costs.
Source: thejakartapost.com
