Once Dumped as Waste, Durian, Chocolate, and Coconut Now Sought After by China

Minister of Transmigration (Mentrans) M Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara has revealed the reasons for strengthening human resources (HR) and education in transmigration areas. Iftitah explained that HR strengthening is necessary to support the comprehensive development of export commodities from upstream to downstream. “There are many commodities that can be exported besides durian, for example chocolate. When we visited West Sulawesi, there was significant chocolate potential,” said Iftitah in response to Kompas.com after the export launch in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday (16/4/2026). He emphasised that commodity development must be carried out in an integrated manner, from seedlings to products reaching the international market. “This business must be end-to-end. Industrialisation and downstreaming must run from upstream to downstream,” he said. According to Iftitah, the Ministry of Transmigration (Kementrans) encourages the involvement of local governments in the entire production chain, from planting, maintenance, harvesting, to downstream processing, quarantine, and export. “If even one link in this chain is broken, the entire process will be disrupted,” he stated. Iftitah also gave the example of mango commodities, which to this day have not been able to penetrate the Japanese market widely despite long-standing demand, partly due to standard and pest constraints. According to him, the standards of the target market should be applied from the early production stage so that the harvest meets export needs. In fact, transmigration areas have two main strengths, namely the availability of land and labour. However, to support economic development, additional factors such as investment, technology, and skilled labour are needed. The Democrat Party politician also recounted times when harvests were abundant in past transmigration models. However, they could not be absorbed by the market due to the lack of an integrated distribution system. “There was an incident where durian was so abundant that it was almost used as balls because there was no market,” he said. In addition, Iftitah mentioned that international market demand for Indonesian commodities is quite high, including from China, which is interested in durian and coconut, both in fresh and processed forms. “If there is no economic activity, people will not stay in transmigration areas,” he stressed.