Indonesian fruit industry stranger to science and technology
Indonesian fruit industry stranger to science and technology
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A failure to apply science and technology has hampered the
development of the Indonesian fruit industry, and left it
incapable of meeting domestic and international demand.
An official at the Ministry of Agriculture said that compared
to growers in the world's main fruit producing countries, such as
Thailand, fruit growers in Indonesia were still very much
dependent on climate. As a consequence, the fruit they produce
fails to meet quality standards.
"Most of our farmers rely on the weather in planning their
planting programs. There is abundant supply of one or two kinds
of fruit in a good season but there nothing in bad times,"
Agricultural Output Processing and Marketing Director Nyoman Oka
Tridajaja said.
He told The Jakarta Post that countries such as Thailand, the
Canary Islands and Spain, three of the world's main fruit
suppliers, had managed to overcome such climate dependency by
using technology.
"The result is a standardized fruit output, which is available
in all seasons. Moreover, they can process the fruit into higher
value-added products by drying and canning it," said Nyoman.
He added that so far only a few big companies in Indonesia,
which had the capital and technology, were interested in the
fruit business, while most of players were traditional farmers
who were dependent on the weather.
"Many companies think the fruit business needs a huge amount
of capital and is a high-risk business. However, if they follow
the paths of successful fruit-growing countries, they will reap
great rewards as Indonesia has a greater potential in this
business," Nyoman argued.
According to ministry data, national fruit output stands at
approximately 11,500,000 tons annually, while domestic
consumption averages around 11,700,000 tons per year. Indonesia
imports an average of 300,000 tons and exports an average of
200,000 tons annually.
Each Indonesian consumes around 40 kilograms of fruit per
year, well below the minimum "healthy" level of 67 kilograms per
year set by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In order
to meet the FAO standard, Indonesia would need to jack up its
fruit output to around 15 million tons per year.
The government has running a number of programs to help
growers overcome their problems since 1997. It has collaborated
with Japan, Australia and the Netherlands in pioneering programs
to enhance the quality of locally-produced fruit in 15 provinces
nationwide. The programs have involved the building of dams, and
quality control initiatives.
"We hope that we will be able to fully meet local demand in
three years by raising production by between 6 percent and 7
percent a year," said Nyoman.
He said the programs had been successful so far, as evidenced
by the rise in the country's fruit exports over the past two
years.
Fresh and dried fruit exports
Jan-Oct. 2002 Jan-Oct. 2003 percentage
increase
volume (tons) 174,043,252 205,376,213 18
value ($US) 82,637,430 112,013,422 35.55
Source: BPS