VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a limited meeting at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday to discuss the development of swallow’s nests and porang plant cultivation.

While delivering an online press statement after the meeting, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo stated that swallow’s nests and porang plants are commodities of Indonesia's future.

“Recently, we attended a limited meeting on two things. The first was related to swallow's nests, and the second was related to the porang plant, both of which are Indonesia's mainstay, Indonesia's future commodity," Limpo said at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The Minister of Agriculture added that he would make maximum efforts to cultivate the two commodities and develop the downstream sector as well as promote their further processing and export.

"Further processing (will be taken up) with the Minister of Industry, and the market place regarding trade, including exports, with the Minister of Trade," he informed.

Porang plants, which enjoy a global demand, can potentially be cultivated almost anywhere in Indonesia, he said.
“Swallow's nests are like that (too). Therefore, we will develop it, accelerate more strongly from upstream to downstream," he added.

The government will first provide assistance in the form of technical guidance to porang and swallow's nest farmers, he said. Then, the regional and producer groupings will be carried out, he disclosed.

"For swallow's nests, it (the support) relates to the swallow houses, the initial process to the industrial process," he said.

The minister said he has conveyed the President's direction to all stakeholders so that regulations can be simplified at all levels. (Antaranews)a