Pontianak – The growth of betel nut exports from West Kalimantan (West Kalimantan) has prompted the Ministry of Agriculture through the Agricultural Quarantine Agency (Barantan) to encourage investment in the processing of betel nuts, both into semi-finished products and final products. This is because the profit margin is higher. “Exports continue to increase, there are new destination countries, we need appreciation, but yes it must be improved so that it is optimal,” said Ali Jamil, Head of the Agricultural Quarantine Agency when releasing 162 tons of betel nut to Thailand in Pontianak (18/7).
Jamil said that from the date of the IQFAST Barantan automation system, several commodities in Pontianak are also entering new countries. Such as commodities like aquatic plant and dry grated coconut that occurs in countries such as the Maldives, Poland, England, Singapore, and Brunei.
He believes that the export of areca nut from West Kalimantan will increase by 200%, in 2018 there were exports of 3,643.21 tons, while from January to June 2019 the export of areca nut from Pangkalpinang reached 3,301.98 tons or 90.63% of last year’s target. The betel nut market is quite broad, including India, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, China, and Myanmar. According to Jamil, so far exporters in Indonesia have been exporting betel nut in raw form to these various destination countries. In destination countries, areca nuts from West Kalimantan are consumed, but most of them are reprocessed into products or ingredients for making cosmetics with foreign brands. “For us, we lose. We are the ones who are struggling to grow, compare, and so on, but other countries have not yet calculated the margins. Come on, how can we process this before exporting,” said Jamil.
In addition to areca nut, coconut exports from West Kalimantan are also still in the form of round coconut, this is because dry coconut processing companies are still limited in West Kalimantan. From the available information, there are only two new companies and their capacity has not been able to absorb all the round coconuts produced by farmers.
According to Jamil, the Ministry of Agriculture through its 5 strategic policies in encouraging exports must be jointly supported. These five policies encourage the growth of new exporters, increase the variety of export commodities including processing them into semi-finished goods or final products, increase the frequency of shipments, increase trading partner countries and increase export volume. Barantan directly took positions in several destination countries through SPS ( sanitary and phytosanitary) agreements with partner countries. Meanwhile, Barantan’s other programs encourage and facilitate collaboration with other ministries or institutions as well as by conducting service innovations such as through IQFAST ( Indonesia Quarantine Full Automation System ), iMace ( Indonesia Map of Agricultural Commodities Export ) and e-Cert or electronic certificates. And to encourage the growth of new exporters, Barantan provides technical guidance on meeting technical export requirements in the Agro Gemilang program, Let’s Promote the Export of agricultural products by the Millennial Generation of the Nation.
