Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry has announced that the export of horticultural commodities grew significantly last year, with fruit exports jumping 26.27 percent compared to the previous year’s figure. “The export of mangosteen jumped 500 percent,” said Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman in Bandung recently, adding that while horticultural exports in whole increased by 11.92 percent or Rp 5 trillion (US$355.71 million) last year.
The Agriculture Ministry said 42 types of horticultural commodities such as pineapples, mangosteens, mangoes and baby beans were exported to 12 countries including Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, China and Australia.
Most of the commodities were produced by farmers in West Java and exported by PT Alamanda Sejati Utama, a private Indonesian agricultural exporter.
Amran said the exports would continue to increase following the reform of certain policies, such as the 24-hour online single submission licensing system and web-based business licensing system, which was launched last year.
According to thejakartapost.com¸ the government revoked 291 regulations because they were preventing the smooth licensing process for exports, he added. Amran said the increase in agricultural exports was the ministry's main priority in a bid to improve the welfare of farmers and boost the country’s economy by improving the quality of commodities in terms of hygiene and security as requested by destination countries.
