Kemenkop UKM: APDURIN-Central Sulawesi Provincial Government Collaboration Able To Encourage Durian Parigi Moutong Exports

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) said that the collaboration between the Indonesian Durian Plantation Association (APDURIN) together with the Central Sulawesi Provincial Government (Pemprov) and Parigi Moutong Regency was able to encourage durian exports to Thailand.

"This activity is in accordance with the direction of government policy, first is the downstreaming based on MSMEs, second is the partnership and third is export. The three targets today can be realized thanks to good cooperation," said Deputy for SMEs at the Coordinating Ministry for SMEs Hanung Harimba Rachman in a written statement received by VOI, Tuesday, January 16.

Hanung said that the success of exports by APDURIN itself was carried out together with the four businesses he carried out, namely PT Herofruit Sumber Sukses, PT Silvia Amerta Jaya, PT Amarta Nadi Argo Cemerlang and PT Ammar Durian Indonesia.

He considered that partnerships with large middle businesses could help increase the capacity and competitiveness of durian business actors.

This partnership is carried out in various forms, such as the provision of raw materials, marketing and the development of technology and the development of a production supply chain ecosystem.

"This is a very good model between APDURIN and the government and entrepreneurs. We have to do a model like this, where big companies can partner with MSMEs to encourage exports," he said.

He hopes that local governments can take a position to determine the superior commodities in their regions, then scale-up the economic value so that they can be exported.

"We hope that this can be replicated for other commodities and in other districts, or in the same district as different commodities," he said.

Meanwhile, APDURIN Board of Trustees Aditya Pradewo revealed that Parigi Moutong was able to produce the same durian quality, even better than Malaysia and Thailand.

"Many durian products were sent to Thailand, but were branded Thai products. This is a challenge on how our products meet standards so that they can export directly to China," he said.

Aditya also invited durian business actors in the future to be able to meet international standards which have been a challenge. "One of them is by collaborating to encourage good MSMEs to be able to maintain their quality to remain stable," he added.