Downstreaming Of Plantation Sectorsnilai Sukses Meningkatkan Daya Saingan Produk Nasional

Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto (central) with businessmen (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA - The government through the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that efforts to encourage downstreaming of the agricultural sector began to show results with a contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of 12.9 percent.

According to him, one of the pillars is the plantation sub-sector as the main contributor with a share of agricultural GDP of 27 percent.

"The government continues to optimize plantation sub-sectors through various steps in order to encourage agricultural performance which has an impact on the national economy," he said in a written statement on Thursday, September 29.

Airlangga added that downstream has been able to increase the value of exports in a number of commodities such as palm oil to 28.5 billion US dollars in 2021.

Downstreaming is able to increase competitiveness, employment, create added value, increase foreign exchange, and create a positive trade balance. Therefore, downstreaming of various commodities must still be driven," he said.

As part of achieving the target, the government is known to have prepared financing assistance through People's Business Credit (KUR).

"In the agricultural sector, KUR has been given IDR 70 trillion and can increase because there are no restrictions for the agricultural sector," he said.

On that occasion, Airlangga also said that the availability of rice was at a safe and sufficient level with production stocks of up to 31 million tons in the last 3 years.

Finally, Airlangga invites various parties, both corporations and local governments, to be able to encourage the progress of various other commodities.

"We must intensively promote and market the products produced so that they can encourage the welfare of farmers," he concluded.