Minister Of Agriculture Says The Price Of Coconut Round Can Reach IDR 6,000 Per Point Thanks To Downstream

Coconut (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman targets the price of round coconut to reach IDR 6,000 per item through the downstream program of plantation commodities.

Amran said this step was part of a major strategy for developing added value of plantation products. He said coconut prices in a number of regions had shown a significant upward trend since the downstream program was running.

"Just a visit to North Maluku, the price of coconut before we downstream, the price is Rp. 600 per seed, now it's Rp. 3,500 per seed, it's up approximately 500 percent. And we hope, the price should be at least Rp. 5,000 And can go up 1,000 percent, it should be, Rp. 6,000 means 1,000 percent," he said at the Ministry of Agriculture office, Jakarta, Friday, November 7.

According to Amran, downstreaming in the coconut sector has great potential to increase the value of Indonesia's exports. Amran said, currently the value of Indonesian coconut exports reaches IDR 24 trillion per year.

"Now our exports are the largest in the world number one. Now, if we downstream this according to the industrial tree diagram, it can be 100 times. What does that mean? It could be IDR 2,400 trillion, but in theory. It could be only 50 percent, 50 times, or 20 times," he said.

Amran said that the acceleration of investment in the coconut sector will be carried out with the Ministry of Investment and state financial institutions. The total investment plan for all sub-sectors of agriculture and food reaches IDR 371 trillion.

"This is at the direction of the President, we are doing downstreaming with the Minister of Investment (Rosan Roeslani), as well as the Head of Danantara, the Head of BKPM, and the richest minister, because he has the money. In principle, we have agreed, and we are accelerating," he said.