Coconut Commodity Supports National Economic Growth

Jakarta, InfoPublik – The agricultural sector plays a significant role in Indonesia's economic growth with a 13.70% contribution to GDP in 2020, the second largest after the manufacturing sector.

This is one of the most resilient sectors during the pandemic as it grew positively by 0.38% (YoY) in Q2 of 2021. Coconut is one of the commodities in the agricultural sector which becomes key export commodities in plantation crops.

“Coconut must enter the global value chain to have an optimum commodity value in international trade,” said the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto during the 49^th International Cocotech Conference and Exhibition on Monday,  30 August. 

To support this, Airlangga said that smart farming can significantly increase agricultural production in both productivity and sustainability. The implementation of smart farming in coconut plants is to check soil health, micro-irrigation, crop diversification/agroforestry, palm climbing machines, robotic palm harvesters, Neera harvesters, red palm weevil detector, air blast sprayer, surveillance plant condition using image analysis/machine learning, pathogen detection, and automation in coconut tissue culture.

"Innovative technology for sustainable coconut development is downstream of coconut products such as coconut oil, virgin coconut oil, and phytonutrients that have high added value for the product," said Airlangga.

In addition, coconuts are a very diverse product that can be sold in many forms, such as coconut water, coconut milk, nata de coco, dried coconut, coconut sugar, briquette, activated carbon, coconut fiber, and coco peat.

Coconut is also claimed to have environmental value, as it absorbs carbon around 5.6 tons of CO2/ha per year and can be implemented as agroforestry. The minister hoped that member countries of the International Coconut Community (ICC) can continue to support the development of sustainable coconut in their respective countries considering the large contribution of coconut in economic, social, and environmental aspects.

It is an important matter because more than 95% of coconut ownership are small farmers who need the government’s attention. Coordinating Minister Airlangga emphasized that the Indonesian government will also continue to support the coconut sector and the ICC secretariat in Indonesia.

"I hope this conference and exhibition can inspire all coconut producing countries to obtain higher added value from downstream coconut industry and increase productivity by using technology," Airlangga concluded.

Reporter: Isma

Translator: Wisnu Wardoyo