Potentially A World Sago Producer, Minister Of Industry: Obstacles In Supply Chain Flows Of Raw Materials

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasmita (photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said that Indonesia has the potential to become a world sago producer. However, there are several obstacles that must be faced, one of which is the supply chain flow for sago raw materials.

He said, Indonesia owns a sago area of 5.5 million hectares (ha) or approximately 85 percent of sago land in the world. However, the utilization is still less than 4 percent.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) in 2022, the area of land used is only 112,000 ha with a total production of 386,000 tons.

In addition, the sago area is still dominated by people's plantations with a presentation of 94.34 percent of land tenure and 99 percent of the sago production.

"The people's plantation infrastructure is still simple, even very simple with very minimal supporting facilities. This causes the supply chain of sago from upstream to downstream to be limited, even very limited," he said in his remarks at the Sago Processing Industry National Symposium at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Monday, July 29.

Furthermore, Agus said, the increase in sago production must also be supported by skills or human resources (HR). According to him, human resources for the development of the sago processing industry are considered minimal so they need more attention.

"Therefore, this requires special attention to accelerate its increase," he said.

The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) is also committed to continuing to increase the downstreaming of sago commodities, namely by developing product diversification, facilitating cooperation between the sago processing industry and the user industry, encouraging the Domestic Component Level certification program (TKDN) and the machine and equipment restructuring program for the sago processing industry.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry seeks to always synergize with other stakeholders from the center and regions as a step to accelerate the development of the sago processing industry.

He said education on sago commodities was needed to increase the popularity of the sago industry in Indonesia.

Minister of Industry Agus assessed that the low popularity was an obstacle to the development and research process, so the potential for sago commodities was difficult to optimize.

"We need education that sago can be an alternative, a source of carbohydrates and of course the industry can be developed so that Indonesia can become one of the largest suppliers of the regent in the world," Agus said in his remarks at the National Symposium of Sago Processing Industry at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Monday, July 29.