Agricom.id, JAKARTA – The pandemic of corona virus (Covid-19) which spreads to many countries in the world including Indonesia has pressed the trade activity. But Minister of Agriculture, Sahrul Yasin Limpo is optimist that the agriculture commodities from Indonesia could be stable. Even since it was announced that there was infection of Covid-19 in the early of March 2020, the horticulture commodity, namely vegetables and fresh fruits increased.

On the other hand, the selling of import fruits, such as, orange, longan, apple, and pear decreased because of the hampered distribution and influenced the price leap in the domestic. Based on the information from many fruit stores in Jakarta, the selling of imported fruit drastically decreased, namely from China.

Since January to February 2020, the selling turnover of imported fruit, such as, santan orange, and sunkis orange decreased up to 45-60 percent. The lack of imported fruits and the increasing price become the chance of the local fruits in the markets.

Director of Fruit and Floriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Liferdi Lukman said that the pandemic of Covid-19 directly influenced the imports of fruits from China, such as, orange, longa, apple, and pear.

“The numbers drastically decreased. Based on the central bureau of statistic (CBS), the imported fruits in February 2020 reached 14,5 thousand tons, or decreased 45 percent compared to those in the previous month. Compared to the same month in 2019, the imports of fruit decreased up to 54 percent,” he said, Wednesday (8/4/2020), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He thought that this is the chance for the local fruit to fulfill the markets, replacing the imported ones.

“The seasonal local fruits, such as, mangosteen, duku, avocado, dragon fruit, and oranges are in harvest now. The seasonal fruits, such as banana, guava, papaya, thorny palm, water melon, and melon keep growing in every single year. The local fruits are enough in general,” the man from Minang told.

The fruits which are increasing are guava, lemonade orange, and avocado.

“These have full of fiber, vitamin C, E, and anti-oxidant. They are good to immunity to block the Covid-19. It is predicted, 85 percent who are positive to have Covid-19 do not show the symptoms for having good immunity,” he said.

Our farmers produce the fruits. The red guava is planted in Bogor, Sukabumi, Majalengka, Cirebon, Kuningan while lemonade orange is planted in district of Bandung, West Bandung, and others in East Java,” he said.

He also explained that in the pandemic of Covid-19, his side keeps doing anything to make sure the local fruits are available.

The demands from the start up increased significantly. “Many online markets do not have direct access to the farmers. That is why we prepared the system of information of map to the fruits,” he said.

He also mentioned that since 2006 ministry of agriculture has focused to develop the mainstay fruits in Indonesia by develop the regions, development to the cultivation based on the good agricultural practices (GAP)/standard operational procedure (SOP), post-harvest facilities and also the process.

Based on the CBS, the production trend of the local fruits in the last four years increased too. In 2019 the production reached 22,5 million tons or increased 4,8% compared to those in 2018.

“The local fruits hardly increased. Alhamdulillah this year has the increasing demands. Hopefully it gives the luck to the fruit farmers in Indonesia,” he said.

In the other spot, the farmer who is also the trader of lemonade orange of Pengalengan, Bandung, Saleh Suryadi said that the pandemic of Covid-19 gives luck to the lemonade orange farmers in his region.

“The demand of lemonade orange increased, namely from Jakarta. Our groups have to send 3 – 5 tons in every week. The numbers are not calculated from other groups,” he said. He also told that the lemonade orange is not less than Rp 15 thousand per kilogram.

“In normal, it could be about 6 to 8 thousand rupiah per kilo. This is good news for the farmers, namely the lemonade ones,” he said in spirit.

He who is also the Chairman of Kelompok Wijaya Tani mentioned that the pandemic of Covid-19 gives the spirit to plant and nurse their trees. Now in his group, the farmers plant more than 10 thousand lemonade orange tress. He estimated, the numbers in Pangelengan could be hundreds of thousand trees.

“We have to follow up the good market chance by the GAP. We nurse them well and based on the standards. We hope too, the government could facilitate by providing the seeds because it has good land, the prospect is good too and could compete with the imported lemonade,” he said. (A2)