Fruit farmers need banking facilities

Fruit farmers need banking facilities

JAKARTA (JP): The country's farmers need banking facilities
and more government assistance to improve the quality and
production of horticultural products, a seminar heard yesterday.

PT Moenaputra president director I Made Donny Waspada, who is
a fruit and vegetable distributor, said at a seminar on
Indonesian fruit and vegetables that farmers were reluctant to
develop horticultural estates because it was hard to get banking
facilities.

Banks treat farmers like other borrowers, imposing high
lending rates and demanding collateral, he said.

"Farmers need a loan with interest rates between 10 to 12
percent a year and the loan should be free of interest for four
months," Donny said.

He said the average 20 percent interest rate charged by banks
were too high for farmers.

Bank loans should also be guaranteed by their distributors as
farmers mostly could not offer collateral, he said.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry 's Sutrisno said some
Asian countries gave lower-interest bank loans to fruit and
vegetable farmers.

Kaman Nainggolan, director of the agriculture ministry's
center for market and information development, said state-owned
estates needed to enter the horticultural business to give
bankers more confidence.

The ministry's figures show Indonesian fruit production rose
to 8.5 million tons in 1995, from 5.5 million tons in 1994. But
the harvested area fell from 726,251 hectares in 1991 to 631,671
hectares in 1995.

Vegetable production rose to 6.9 million tons in 1995 from 5.6
tons in 1991. The harvested area rose slightly to 890,284
hectares from 839,437 hectares.

Indonesia exported 68.9 million tons of fresh fruit and 94.2
million tons of processed fruit in 1995 and imported of 122.9
million tons of fresh fruit and 4.8 million tons of processed
fruit.

Main export fruits were mangoes, mangosteens, bananas,
pineapples and rambutans. Main import fruits were apples, pears,
grapes, oranges and mandarins.

Director General of Food Crops and Horticulture Amrin Kahar
said the government had started paying attention to horticultural
crops three years ago.

"We have many tropical fruits, including mangosteen and
durian, which can be developed to be main export commodities. We
have also wide tracts of land that can be used as fruit estates,"
he said.

He said Indonesian fruits and vegetables still had problems
concerning quality and production continuity which was because
they were produced mainly by small farmers.

The government was preparing a quality standard for Indonesian
fruits, he said.

Indonesian food products, including processed fruit and
vegetables, have been rejected several times by countries like
the U.S. It rejected US$152.9 million worth of products in 1993
and $100 million in 1995. (jsk)