Agriculture in Indonesia
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INDONESIA, 2015/02/22
Tea in Indonesia is not just a popular drink widely enjoyed both hot and cold, but it is also one of the country’s main agricultural products and an important export commodity. The cultivation of tea in Indonesia dates back to the Dutch colonial era. The sector suffered from a lack of investment in the decades following independence, but by the mid-1980s exports had been revived. Despite falling back in recent years, Indonesia still ranks among the world’s top ten growers and exporters of tea. Rising costs are putting pressure on local producers, and some tea plantations have been converted for alternative use. Nevertheless the sector offers intriguing business opportunities, particularly with a view to selling on the home market.
Despite falling back in recent years, Indonesia still ranks among the world’s top ten growers and exporters of tea
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INDONESIA, 2015/02/22
Indonesia is the world’s third largest cocoa producer after the Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, but its significance as an exporter is declining due to rising domestic demand. Responding to Indonesians' growing taste for chocolate and other goods made from cocoa, global companies have invested heavily in cocoa grinding facilities and downstream businesses in recent years. Farmers, however, are struggling to increase cocoa bean output and have become the weak link in Indonesia's cocoa industry. As a result, cocoa processors are forced to source a growing portion of their raw beans from abroad at a time of high global prices.
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INDONESIA, 2015/02/22
While the Indonesian economy is diversifying slowly, a whopping 16% of the GDP is still provided by the agricultural sector which as well employs 45% of the working people, numbers testifying both to the importance of the sector and at the same time indicating its lack of efficiency.
The major impediments to agricultural development are lack of planning, the existence of a long tradition of agriculture, lack of investment and lack of knowledge. The annual vocal discussion with regard to the import of rice is a clear indication of the former. If planning was adequate this issue wouldn’t even come up for one simple reason: Why should so a lot of Indonesian farmers grow rice at all if they could produce crops that sell for prices that are a lot higher than that of rice?
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CHINA, 2012/12/25
The full palm oil storage tanks at the Chinese ports near Guangzhou and Shanghai are bad news for small Indonesian farmers like Sugang Suprayetno.
Farm-gate prices for palm oil in his village of Pulo Dogom on Sumatra have fallen by additional than a third over the past months as Chinese and Indian request for commodities has shrunk in line with slowing increase in the large Asian economies.
