SOURCE: Tempo
The head of the Indonesian Quarantine Agency (Barantin) Sahat Manaor Panggabean released 4,176 tons of fresh pineapple from Lampung to be exported to China.
“The government is pushing for mass export of local commodities to boost local economy,” Sahat said in Lampung on Thursday, November 8, 2023.
“The value of this export is quite huge, amounting to Rp39.8 billion from 4.176 tons of fresh pineapples and a significant amount of demand,” he added.
According to Sahat, it took eight years for this export to be successfully conducted. “This was quite the hard work since [the export] took eight years. Later, aside from China, we will export to countries like New Zealand and other potential [export] destinations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Corporate Affairs Director of PT GGP Welly Soegiono stated that with a population of 1.4 billion, China’s demand for fresh pineapples is quite high. “If one person consumes one pineapple, the total of pineapples consumed could reach 370 million tons,” Welly said.
Welly said that to maintain pineapple productivity, his company will continue to work alongside the farmers in Tanggamus Regency over 450 hectares of land.
“Working with the farmers is necessary since we already have 21 world-class certificates and the farmers would have a hard time managing the [land] independently. We have exported [pineapples] every week to Singapore and Japan,” he said.
According to Welly, so far there have been 80 pineapple containers exported in stages without negating the quality. “And to ensure the prosperity of our farmer associates,” he said.