Indonesian mangosteens entered their new harvest season in January. Although sales in the domestic market show a downward trend due to the severe pandemic situation in Indonesia, the demand from China, Dubai and France remains strong.
Stevan Budi is the managing director at Frozen Fruits, a fruits grower and exporter in Indonesia. The company has 3,600 hectares of mangosteen production fields in Tasikmalaya and Banyuwangi.
“In Indonesia, mangosteens are harvested in two seasons, from January till March, and from November till December.” Stevan reports. “In recent months, the weather conditions in the production areas were not very stable. Sometimes in the same week, we had days with heavy rains, and days with extreme high temperatures. But the changes of weather did not have much impact on the quality of the fruits, only the production yield slightly decreased compared with the previous year.”
Frozen Fruits have only just started growing and trading mangosteen this year. The majority of their products are sold to Indonesian local supermarkets. “In February, the covid-19 situation became severe again in Indonesia, and to some extent this has affected our business. We have slightly fewer orders from local markets, and the sales movement is not as fast as last month.”
Besides the domestic market, the company also exports fruits to China, Dubai and France. “Since this month, market demand is rising and we received more orders from overseas markets. Higher demand also pulls the price up. At the moment, the FOB price is around $11.84/box (10kg).”
When talking about the tight global shipping capacity, Stevan said: “We've seen a slightly decreasing trend for the cost of sea freight in the past month, but in general the cost is still quite high compared to the cost price before the outbreak of Covid-19. Sometimes we need to share the burden of this extra cost with the customer.”
The headquarters of Frozen Fruits is in UD Citra Tama Jaya in Indonesia. Besides fresh mangosteen, the company also exports fresh pineapples and frozen pineapples.
More information:
Frozen Fruits
Stevan Budi
[email protected]
