Agricom,id, REJANG LEBONG – In the hard situation because of the pandemic of corona virus (Covid-19) which hits Indonesia and many countries, this is the good news for the tangerine farmers in Sub district of Bermani Ulu Raya, District of Rejang Lebong, Bengkulu. If in general when the farmers were in harvest season, the price got cheaper, but the tangerine farmers in Rejang Lebong, as the center of tangerine production, since March 2020, have got good production. Its selling price remains stable. The local farmers are overwhelmed to serve the high demands.

“We have good production this season and the price is relatively good about Rp 10 thousand to Rp 12 thousand per kilogram in the farmers’ level. it is the same contract commitment with our big distributor in Jakarta, PT Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN). We get lucky because of the stable price. We are overwhelm to fulfill the demands,” Rohadin, the tangerine farmer said from his home in Village of Karanganyar, Sub district of Curup Utara, Rejang Lebong, Tuesday (14/4/2020), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

His famous name, Adi who is also the coordinator of Kelompok Tani Citrin Tani Mandiri said that his side regularly sends the orange about 3,5 tons in each week to  Jakarta through PT SSN. “They actually want 5 tons per week but our friends could fulfill 3,5 tons. Hopefully we could fulfill it in the future,” he said.

He thought, the farmers planted about 500 hectares of tangerine in the region. Of the numbers, 200 hectares start harvesting. “The massive harvest takes place in March – May and October – November. The rests are normal to harvest,” he mentioned.

He and the other farmers confessed and thanked the supports of the government, namely ministry of agriculture for giving helps to develop tangerine as the mainstay in the region. “For all these years, we have been developed by general directorate of horticulture, Balitjestro, BPTP Bengkulu, plantation agency Bengkulu. The superior seed helps and the infrastructures from ministry of agriculture really help the farmers. We do hope that there would be good agricultural practice and good handling practices to have better nursery and post – harvest,” he said.

In the other spot, Director of Fruit and Floriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Liferdi Lukman said that ministry of agriculture really supports the tangerine in Bengkulu. It is one mainstay product and many like it. “From its appearance and the taste, it is very good. The water inside is better too. The combination of acid, sweet, and fresh is good as the vitamin consumption. It has high productivity about 535-617 fruit per tree,” he said.

He thought that it is good if being consumed in the pandemic of Covid-19 to increase the immunity because the macro and micro substances are complete. “It has kinds of vegetable compound, such as, phenolic and carotenoid. The both have anti-oxidant which could control free radical. Some examples of phenolic compound are hesperidin and anthocyanin; and the examples of carotenoid are lycopene and beta-crytoxanthin,” he who is also the fruit researcher told.

He admitted that the high demands of tangerine during the pandemic of Covid -19 are the luck and the challenge for the farmers. Ministry of Agriculture through General Directorate of Horticulture keeps supporting to develop the orange regions in many provinces, such as, North Sumatera, Bengkulu, East Java, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara. “In the last five years nationally, we have developed not less than 10 thousand hectares.  In Rejang Lebong we allocated about 100 hectares. In Bengkulu we focused Keprok Rimau Gerga Lebong (RGL) for it is adaptive there,” he said.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Indonesia is in the third orange producer in the world in the mandarin and tangerine groups within the production, 2 million tons per year. Based on CBS the tangerine production nationally in 2019 reached 2,44 million tons deriving from many provinces, or increased 1,3% compared to 2018. The biggest orange producer is East Java reaching 985.455 tons; Bali reaching 348.756 tons; North Sumatera reaching 296.934 tons; West Kalimantan reaching 257.774 tons; and South Kalimantan reaching 168.762 tons. The RGL orange in retail markets in Jakarta is about Rp 40 thousand to Rp 60 thousand per kilogram, while the orange from North Sumatera is about Rp 30 thousand per kilogram. (A2)