Malaysian Delegation Visited Minister Amran's Office, Pleading with Indonesia Over This Matter

The Ministry of Agriculture has revealed that a Malaysian delegation visited its office some time ago. The visit was prompted by the neighbouring country’s concerns over coconut supplies from Indonesia, which serve as the main pillar for their industrial needs. Agus Rosyid Wasingun, Agricultural Product Quality Supervisor at the Directorate General of Plantations, Ministry of Agriculture, stated that global demand for Indonesian coconuts continues to rise. In fact, Malaysia is currently heavily dependent on coconut supplies from Indonesia. “The opportunity is that global demand is quite large, and several countries have already started. For instance, Malaysia relies on Indonesia for almost 89 per cent of its coconut needs. So, when there was a shortage two years ago, they came to the ministry to plead that exports not be halted, but rather regulated and so on,” Rosyid said during the Sinar Tani Coconut Downstreaming Webinar on Wednesday. “Their concern was so high because 89 per cent of Malaysia’s coconut needs are supplied by Indonesia. The export opportunities are also quite substantial,” he continued. According to Rosyid, the high dependence of several countries on Indonesian coconuts presents a significant opportunity for the national industry. He noted that export demand remains wide open, as more countries begin importing processed coconut products from Indonesia. He also revealed that the number of export destination countries for processed coconut products continues to grow. One national coconut processing company has reportedly exported its products to nearly 80 countries. “Countries that previously did not import from us have started to do so. When I visited the company of Mr Rudy, he mentioned that almost 80 countries have requested or imported processed coconut products from his company, and others as well,” he said. In light of this high demand, the government is now pushing for the acceleration of coconut downstream processing so that exports are no longer dominated by raw materials, but rather by processed products with higher added value. Rosyid stated that President Prabowo Subianto’s directive is to increase the added value of commodities domestically by inviting investors to build coconut processing industries within Indonesia. “If we implement this downstreaming properly and achieve the expected output, the added value could increase nearly tenfold, from the raw fruit to various processed and exportable products. The President’s directive is clear: the added value must be generated domestically. If necessary, we should invite processing investors to set up in the country, so that exports are in the form of processed goods, not just whole coconuts,” he concluded.