Utilization Of The Indonesian Sago Potential Is Still Low, Minister Of Industry Agus Reveals Three Constraints

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said, Indonesia has the largest potential for sago land in the world.

Of the 6.5 million hectares (ha) of sago land worldwide, there are about 5.5 million ha or 85 percent in Indonesia.

"The use of the potential of sago in Indonesia is still very low," Agus said in his remarks at the National Symposium of the Sago Processing Industry at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Monday, July 29.

Agus said, there were at least three obstacles that caused the use of the potential of sago in the country to remain very low to date.

First, the flow of the supply chain of sago raw materials.

It is known that the sago area in Indonesia is dominated by people's plantations with a percentage of land tenure reaching 94.34 percent with a contribution of sago production reaching 99 percent.

"The people's plantation infrastructure is still simple with very minimal supporting facilities. This causes the supply chain of sago from upstream to downstream to be very limited," he said.

Second, minimal human resource skills and capacity (HR).

"Special attention is needed to accelerate the increase," said Agus.

The third obstacle is the low popularity of sago commodities.

"This is an obstacle to development and research which ultimately limits the achievement of this commodity potential," he said.

In fact, Agus said, sago can be an alternative source of carbohydrates and the industry can be developed so that Indonesia becomes one of the largest suppliers of the starch in the world.

Currently, he continued, the largest sago regent exporter in the world with an export value in 2023 of around 15 million US dollars is Malaysia.

Indonesia itself in 2023 occupies the second position with an export value of around 9 million US dollars.

According to Agus, this value is still very small

"I hope that this potential that has not been utilized can be utilized by all stakeholders. Especially to open, create and fill the national and international sago markets for actors involved in Indonesian sago agribusiness," he added.