Japan Sets Eyes on Javanese Brown Sugar
30 March 2015 14:38 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Purbalingga - Japanese company Yakabe is interested in importing brown sugar from Purbalingga, Central Java. Yakabe president director Matsuzaki Atsushige is visiting the city to check out its coconut oil and palm sugar markets, two commodities that are currently popular in Japan, in line with the Japanese's increasing interest on healthy and organic food products.
"We will distribute this natural food product to all parts of Japan," Matsuzaki said yesterday.
From his visit to Bojong village, Matsuzaki saw that there are many tappers that do not health standards when processing the commodity. He said that organic standards are not too important, but hygiene is important to have the product able to enter the Japanese market.
Purbalingga regent Sukento Rido Marhaendrianto said that in Purbalingga there are 17,000 palm sugar tappers, of which 3,000 have organic certificates from the Netherlands. He realizes that most of the sugar manufacturers in Purbalingga are still doing things manually. "Right now, Purbalingga's sugar production cannot be standardized with Japan," he said.
ARIS ANDRIANTO
