Farmers of local fruit, especially salak (snake fruit), are struggling to maintain market demand due to an increasing number of imported products.
I Nyoman Sepel Diantara, a member of Giri Arta agribusiness, which consists of Sibetan salak farmers in Karangasem, said the existing market had yet to support the program to protect local fruits and farmers.
“Hotel and restaurant owners say foreign tourists don’t like salak that much because of the spikes,” Sepel lamented. He said such a problem could have been discussed, for example, by making salak a welcome fruit, like the provincial administration had planned.
The period of January to March is fruit harvesting time. Dozens of seasonal fruit sellers are offering various tropical fruits on every street corner.
Fish sellers along the Denpasar-Karangasem road, for instance, add fruit to their stalls as supply is increasing.
At the beginning of the harvest season in January, Sepel said salak prices could go up to Rp 5,000 (41 US cents) per kilogram, while sugar salak could reach Rp 15,000 per kg.
However, during the peak harvest season in March, salak prices usually drop to around Rp 1,000 per kg.
“So we have to try processing salak into something else, like wine, rujak [fruit salad] flavoring, chips, so that we don’t suffer too much loss,” Sepel said.
He said this was a regular problem faced by salak farmers, despite the bylaw on local fruit protection being introduced in 2013. The bylaw aimed to help local farmers and urge tourism businesspeople to use local fruits.
According to Sepel, the establishment of an online market for horticultural produce did not help the farmers either.
“It’s just like retailing,” he said. “In fact, we want buyers to come and buy the fruit at the plantation.”
Last year, the administration launched an online horticultural product market, pasarlelang.com, as one of its efforts to boost marketing.
However, the virtual market remains offline and no clear information is provided in it, either to customers or to farmers, on how to participate.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Bali’s salak production reaches around 26,000 to 30,000 tons per year, the fourth highest after bananas, oranges and mangos.
Salak is among Bali’s top horticultural products, alongside food such as Kintamani oranges, mangosteen, strawberries, capsicum and asparagus.
Bali Trade Agency head Ni Wayan Kusmuwathi said that, in fact, local fruit protection was also stipulated in a bylaw on tourism. “The tourist industry has to prioritize the use of local fruits to support Bali’s
agriculture,” she said.
Kusmuwathi added that the island had never developed a database on the trade of local fruits to other islands.
She reasoned that farmers’ trading was not yet integrated, thus no records were made.
Source: The Jakarta Post