Pepper farmers want joint marketing body

Pepper farmers want joint marketing body

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

White pepper farmers and traders urged the government on
Tuesday to set up soon a joint marketing body to regulate the
white pepper trade in a bid to shore up the currently dwindling
price of the commodity.

"We need the marketing body; it's the only way for the
government to help prop up the low price of the commodity at the
farmers' level," said Heryawandi, chairman of the Indonesian
Association of the White Pepper Community (Amlapi), which groups
white pepper farmers and traders in the islands of Bangka and
Belitung, Riau.

Both islands are the country's main white pepper producing
areas.

He said pepper farmers were now trying to shift to cultivation
of other commodities, as the price of the commodity had been
declining for the past few years.

The association made the statement after meeting with Minister
of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi and the International Pepper
Community.

White pepper currently commands about Rp 16,000 (around
US$2.00) per kilogram (kg), compared with about Rp 80,000 in
1998.

Herwandi said farmers' production costs were as high as Rp
25,000 per kg.

The association said that the decline in price was due to the
long marketing chain that existed for the commodity. Some 80
percent of the country's white pepper was bought by Singaporean
traders at low prices from local exporters. The Singaporean
traders then sold the commodity to end users in other countries
at high prices.

"We want to cut this marketing chain. We hope the body can
sell the commodity directly to end users," he said.

The ministry has long planned to establish such a marketing
body but the Indonesian Association of Pepper Exporters (AELI)
has protested the plan, saying it would only hurt the country's
exports.

AELI also said the body would limit the number of exporters,
possibly leading to monopolistic practices.

Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of white pepper,
accounting for 70 percent to 80 percent of the world's supply.
The country produces some 40,000 tons of white pepper annually.

The country's white pepper, labeled on the international
market as Muntok White Pepper, is mostly produced on the islands
of Bangka Belitung. Muntok is the name of a seaport in Bangka.

Indonesia also produces black pepper, but in relatively small
quantities.

Apart from Indonesia, other major pepper producers are Brazil,
India, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.