Trade Minister Zulhas Committed To Strengthening Indonesia's Trade Relations With India

JAKARTA - Trade Minister (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan is committed to strengthening trade relations with India, especially in the spice sector, when visiting the Agricultural Products and Livestock Market Committee (APMC) Market in Navi, Mumbai, India on Wednesday, August 23 local time.

Zulkifli said Indonesia is a spice-producing country exported to a number of countries including India. He admitted that he was quite surprised to see the very advanced APMC spice trade scale.

"Indonesia will continue to strengthen trade relations with India, especially in the spice trade sector. For this reason, Indonesia must learn," Zulkifli said in a written statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara.

Furthermore, the clove from Manado, known as Lalfari, is quite famous in India. Cengkeh is considered to have the best quality in the world.

"We must continue to maintain and even continue to improve the quality of Indonesia's cloves," said Zulkifli.

Zulkifli said that after attending the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers' Meeting (TIMM), he planned to discuss with the Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal to find solutions to tariff barriers.

APMC Market is India's largest spice trading center and is one of the largest in Asia and the world. APMC Market has 15,000 registered companies with an area of 77 hectares.

On this occasion, Zulkifli also invited APMC members to attend the Indian trade mission at the Trade Expo Indonesia 2023 event on 18-22 October 2023 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE), Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) City, Tangerang.

Meanwhile, Gopaal Ahuja's Director of Commercial Exotic Spices (K Ahuja Foods) Ahuja said that the presence of Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan was a great honor. This is because India and Indonesia have a long history of trade relations.

"We have a long trade relationship with Indonesia. A lot of spices here come from Indonesia, such as pepper, ketumbar, and cloves," said Gopaal.

During this visit, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan also had the opportunity to travel to the APMC Market to see spice products sold at the market in retail or wholesale.

According to Gopaal, Indian spice entrepreneurs are delighted to be able to meet and have a direct dialogue with Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan.

"Entrepreneurs are happy to meet and have direct dialogue with the Indonesian Minister of Trade. This is because Indonesia is an important country. The Indonesian Trade Minister wants to go down to a market like this is something extraordinary," said Gopaal.