Trade Minister Zulhas Asks Businessmen To Intensify Exports Of Kelapa Derivative Products

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan asked business people to stop exporting only raw coconut, but also in derivative products that also have useful and economic value.

"According to President Jokowi's direction, we must stop exporting raw coconut only because every part of the coconut tree can be used to produce valuable products," Zulhas said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, July 22.

Zulkifli said that currently Indonesia has started exporting derivative products for coconut commodities such as nata de coco, charcoal batok, scarile, and coconut shells.

According to him, the derivative products of these coconut commodities are starting to be in demand and enjoyed by many countries in the world because they have good quality.

On the other hand, efforts to export various derivative products of coconut commodities still have to be massively encouraged to provide added value for Indonesia.

Moreover, Indonesia is the second producer of coconut commodities in the world after the Philippines with a coconut area of 3.8 million hectares and production reaches 2.8 million tons per year and the export value reaches 1.55 billion US dollars.

In fact, Indonesia is also the main exporter of coconut commodities and derivative products such as coconut oil, coconut coconut, scarile, and coconut water.

Indonesia is proud to have coconut as a leading commodity. Coconut is an important commodity that has contributed greatly to the Indonesian economy," said Zulkifli.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the International Coconut Community Jelfina C. Alouw said that making coconut derivative products so that they can be exported is a challenge in itself.

This is because industry players in the field of coconut commodities must innovate and increase creativity in utilizing each part of coconut while still prioritizing the value of its use.

"The challenge is that we have to enter exports so the product is finished. This also needs industrial integration," said Jelfina.