Food Exports Targeted at US$375 Million
Wednesday, 10 May, 2006 | 17:09 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The export target for food and beverages from small- and medium-size enterprises is US$375 million in 2006.

This is a 25 percent increase from last year's target of US$300 million.

According to Sakri Widhiyanto, Director General of Small- and Medium-size Enterprises at the Department of Industry, the government can not increase the export target by more than 25 percent for several reasons.

“One of these reasons is the fuel price increases that have caused a rise in production costs,” he said yesterday after opening the Food and Beverages Small- and Medium- Size Enterprises Expo.

Some of the top products for export markets are smoked fish, coconut oil, sweets, cattle food, and cashew nuts.

The export value of these products in 2005 were smoked fish US$9.5 million, coconut oil US$84.7 million, sweets US$14 million, cattle food US$28.8 million, and cashew nuts US$28.9.

The biggest export destination countries are Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia.

Although the export target has roses, the market for food and beverage products is mostly still domestically.

These small- and medium-size enterprise products have to compete with similar products from other countries and face requirement difficulties to enter modern markets.

Maruli Ferdinand