Based on the records of the Central Statistics Agency, the production of Indonesian fruits continues to increase. In 2021 it reached 25.96 million tons or an increase of 5.4% compared to 2020 production of 24.63 million tons. The commodities with the largest amount of production were bananas (8.74 million tons / 33.67%), pineapples (2.89 million tons / 11.13%), mangoes (2.84 million tons / 10.94%), Siamese oranges (2.4 million tons / 9.24%), and durians (1.35 million tons / 5.2%). "The condition of increasing local fruit production provides an opportunity for an increase in exports and also import substitution, considering that the demand for local fruit has also increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. In this case, it is a fruit that can increase the body's immunity and provide health benefits," explained Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Musdhalifah Machmud.
According to Musdhalifah, the hope in the future is an increase in fruit production in line with the increase in people's fruit consumption. "This situation will encourage farmers to be more enthusiastic about culture, and will also be able to increase their income by producing fruit according to the needs of the community," said Musdhalifah. Furthermore, in 2021, the export value of the horticultural processing industry, which includes the fruit processing industry, reached USD383 million. This value increased by 22.79% compared to the previous year of USD312 million. "Several fruit processing industries have been export-oriented since its inception. In fact, in 2021 the export value of the agro industry reached USD64.55 billion, of which it was also contributed by the fruit processing industry," said the Director General of Agro Industry of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), Putu Juli Ardika. Currently, in Indonesia there are six fruit processing industries between small and medium scale, with a total production capacity of 5,500 tons / year. Meanwhile, in the downstream sector, there are 41 companies with a total production capacity of 430,000 tons / year. Putu also revealed that the domestic fruit processing industry is believed to be able to meet foreign market demands, especially in terms of quality. This is because the fruit industry in the country has expanded its market to several export destination countries such as Spain, the United States, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. In fact, the domestic fruit processing industry in general has partnered with local farmer groups or fruit cooperatives to obtain raw materials. Partnership is a form of domestic industry efforts to reduce dependence on imports of raw materials, increase the utilization and added value of local resources and play a role in improving the welfare of the community and farmers. "We from the government encourage the domestic fruit processing industry to establish partnerships with local farmers to improve the welfare of farmers and support import substitution programs," hoped Putu.
In addition, fruit processing products have considerable potential opportunities. So that with a large volume of fresh fruit production, it can be processed into intermediate products to meet the needs of the downstream sector in order to reduce imports. Then the potential of domestic fruits with a very large amount of production needs to be processed more optimally, including bananas with a total production of 7.2 million tons / year, mangoes (2.6 million tons), Siamese oranges (2.4 million tons), pineapples (1.8 million tons), and papayas (887 thousand tons). Everything can be further optimized. Then, referring to information from the Agricultural Database of the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2021 horticultural exports reached USD647.24 million, or an increase of 0.27 percent compared to 2020. This increase in exports was dominated by fruit commodities during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. The realization value of fruit exports in 2021 was recorded at USD488.18 million, an increase of 25.21 percent compared to 2020. Currently, the development of export-oriented horticultural areas has been carried out in 7 (seven) locations, namely Tanggamus-Lampung, Jembrana-Bali, Bener Meriah-Aceh, Blitar, Garut, Sukabumi, and Ponorogo. However, in order to support the success of the export-oriented horticultural development program, synergy and collaboration from various parties are needed.
Source : https://www.neraca.co.id/article/167311/peningkatan-produksi-buah-lokal-mendorong-ekspor
