Indonesia Has Vanilla Export Potential, Asian Countries To Europe Become Destination Areas

A worker shows vanilla fruit in the garden of PT Java Agro Spices in Parakan, Temanggung Regency. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The export market for vanilla from Indonesia is still open. The reason is that vanilla exports from Indonesia are still very small, around five percent of the total demand.

"Therefore, we encourage farmers to develop vanilla cultivation because the export market for this commodity is still open and the price is promising," said Director of PT Java Agro Spices Singgih Arie Pratomo (Tomy) quoted by Antara, Sunday, July 17.

Tommy, who has been exporting vanilla since 2016, said that the Temanggung area is suitable for vanilla development and in the past, Temanggung was also known as a vanilla-producing area.

So far, he has exported the most to the United States and then to European countries such as France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the export destinations for Asia are to Japan and Thailand.

He said that every year he could export around 10 tons of vanilla, with raw materials imported from all over Indonesia, such as East Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Papua.

Now, there is still a lot of vanilla in Sulawesi and NTT, because the farmers there are consistent, meaning that when the price falls, they continue to plant, while in other areas they are cut down and replaced by other crops, including in Temanggung.

"The price of vanilla fell in 2003-2004, dry vanilla was only valued at Rp. 30,000 per kilogram so many farmers were reluctant to plant it. However, in 2016-2017 the price of vanilla was booming, where the price of wet-picked vanilla reached Rp. 700 thousand per kilogram ," he said.

In the last three years, he said, the price tends to be stable, dry vanilla is Rp. 1 million to Rp. 1.5 million per kilogram.

Separately, the Regent of Temanggung, M. AlKhadziq, admitted that traditionally this Temanggung was once the center of vanilla farming.

"Until vanilla became one of the symbols in the Temanggung Regency logo because in the past Temanggung was a vanilla producer, but one thing or another vanilla in Temanggung has decreased and now people's awareness has started to increase again to plant vanilla," he said.

He conveyed that through the Department of Food Security, Agriculture and Fisheries, the Temanggung Regency Government asked farmers to develop vanilla again because the price was quite promising.