VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian businesspeople has made a palm shell transaction potential for export to Japan with value US$12 million year on year. This was the result of a business meeting between Indonesian palm shell businesspeople and Japanese biomass industry businesspeople in Pekanbaru, Riau recently. That was stated by Director General of the Trade Ministry's National Export Development, Didi Sumedi in a statement released on Saturday (27/11).

The business meeting was facilitated by the Indonesian Trade Ministry along with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Palm Shell Businessmen Association (APCASI).

In the statement, Didi Sumedi said that to maintain the trade balance surplus, the government keeps developing export-potential products and commodities with high demand and sales value in the global market. One of them is the palm shell.

Currently, Japan is the biggest market for palm shells and predicted to stay as the main market. That was because of Japan's energy policy about 24% of the energy supply in Japan by 2030 must be renewable.

Meanwhile, Director of  Export Development Cooperation at the Trade Ministry, Marolop Nainggolan said that his side will keep encouraging the palm shell export growth to Japan through cooperation with various stakeholders. He further explained that the ministry and JETRO attempt to maintain and increase palm shell export to Japan. The cooperation among many was the one-on-one business matching.

Marolop added that his side invited buyers to see directly the warehouse and processing factory so that they are more convinced with Indonesian palm shell quality.

The world's palm shell production mostly comes from Indonesia. Indonesian palm shell product export in January-September 2021 reached US$286 million or increasing 27.01 percent compared to the same period in 2020.

The main export destination is Japan with 84.5 percent of the total Indonesian palm shell export, followed by Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, and India. Indonesian palm shell supply comes from Jambi, Riau, West Sumatera, Central Kalimantan, and North Sumatera.