Indonesia’s largest grower of Cavendish bananas targeting 10 pct increase in exports by 2020

JAKARTA – In line with the Indonesia government's goal to increase local fruit production for domestic consumption and export, the country's largest grower of Cavendish bananas, PT Nusantara Tropical Farm (NTF), is targeting to export 40 percent of its total fruits production under its Sunpride brand to China, India, Japan, Korea, and the Middle East by 2020 from its current level of 30 percent, Oom Aulia Amrullah, its Office Strategic Management told Salaam Gateway. 

“We want to quadruple our production capacity by the end of 2020. By that time, we hope to see a 10 percent increase in export volume,” said Amrullah.

For this year, the privately-held company has already produced 60 percent of its target of 65,000 tons, or 5 million boxes, of Cavendish bananas, crystal guavas, honi pineapples, dragon fruits and calina papayas, according to Amrullah.

The company only started exporting fruit to the Middle East and China in late 2014, said Amrullah, and exports of bananas to Japan started last year following an agreement signed between the two countries in June 2015 allowing for the export of 1,000 tons of the fruit a year at zero tariffs.

“Now we have a management team for marketing in each of these markets,” Amrullah said.

The company has a 3,700-hectare plantation in Lampung, South Sumatra. It supplies 70 percent of its produce to its affiliate, leading domestic fresh fruits distributor Sewu Segar Nusantara, and exports the rest.

NTF will sell 1.4 million boxes (18,300 tons) of Cavendish bananas to China, Japan, and the Middle East, said Amrullah.

It will export half of its 120 containers (200,000 boxes) of honi pineapples to Japan, with the other half going to UAE-based Lulu Hypermarket and Saudi-based Sharbatly Fruit.

The company has already exported 1 container (500 boxes) of crystal guava to Jeddah, according to Amrullah.

In a bid to increase production, in May Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman told local press the government will provide 400,000 hectares of land for fruit production, starting with 100,000 hectares allocated to state-owned companies.

The country’s fruit exports reached $37 million in 2015, a 30 percent increase from $28.9 million in 2014, Sulaiman told local press in May.

(1 box package = 10 to 13 kilograms depending on the fruit) 

© SalaamGateway.com 2016 All Rights Reserved