Agricom.id, MAKASSAR – Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) released the dried chile exports from South Sulawesi to the new countries, Pakistan, on Sunday (22/11/2020). It was the first export by PT Ransu Navigasi Nusantara for about 21 tons in total.

"This is very good because the agriculture develops massively not only to the food security but also for the exports. The exports are not about quantity but also about kinds, such as, chili which could be exported to Pakistan as the color mixture to their textile industries,” SYL said, Sunday, as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He thought that the exports were the second ones. In the previous, dried chili was exported to Japan which reached 23 tons but in phase.

“This is the prospect because we could harvest chili in every single month. It is highly potential. The country has 100 tons of contract but we are ready to backup if the exports would be 1000 tons,” he said.

He continued that the successful exports in Asia were not easy to do. As it goes, the exporters always face the license and trust from one country. That is why he wants that the exporters and businessmen could consistently export though they do the common commodities.

“Do not think about the cash. But the most important thing is that we never stop (exporting). No one should stop and the officers in agricultural sectors should not either. Why? Because the agriculture never knows what day it is,” he said.

Besides dried chili, SYL also released the sub sector plantation, food plantations, and horticulture, such as, seed, palm oil shell, grated coconut, rubber, ‘porang’, black grass jelly, banana, mangoesteen, and galangal for about 114,1 tons in total or about Rp. 21,3 billion to Asia and Europe.

Head of Badan Karantina Pertanian (Barantan), Ali Jamil said that the most important thing to export is paying attention to the downstream products.

“The fresh agricultural products which are perishable should have downstream products to get added values and should guarantee the product acceptance in the goal countries. The downstream products should not be easy to break but have good quality,” he said.

Based on the exports data in Karantina Makassar, the exports increased 8 percent to many countries. The exports were to 133 countries in 2019 and 143 countries by October 2020, or there were 10 new countries, such as, Thailand India, and China.

"As the task force coordinator to increase the agricultural exports, we encourage every businessman to open information access to do exports as wide as they could,” Jamil said.

For information, data from Central Bureau of Statistic in October, the agricultural exports increased up to USD 0,42 billion or about 1,26 percent (m to m) compared to the previous month.

Compared to the previous year, the agricultural exports increased 23,80 percent (y o y). (A2)