TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Several Indonesian businessmen in the fruit business gathered at the Chinese embassy in Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, in early May. Around one week before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang`s visit, the country`s embassy had specifically invited fruit importers to investigate the disappearance of Chinese mandarins from the Indonesian market.
"They asked what could be done to ensure that their mandarins would be allowed in," Eddy Simon, an importer and current chair of the Association of Indonesian Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Exporters, said recently.
Chinese embassy's ministerial counselor for economics and trade, Wang Liping, explained that the meeting was arranged because mandarin growers in Fujian, China's southern coastal province, were recently hit hard. Chinese mandarin growers were no longer allowed to export their fruits to Indonesia during the major harvest early this year. According to Wang Liping, their losses exceeded US$36 million (around Rp504 billion). "Indonesia is one of our largest markets for mandarins," he told Tempo last week.
This recent predicament is also why the mandarin issue was brought up at the bilateral meeting between Chinese Premier Li and Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Bogor Presidential Palace on May 7. During the meeting, Li questioned the Indonesian government's policy to restrict fruit imports from China, particularly mandarins. He hoped that horticulture imports would instead rise. Li assured that mandarins from China do meet Indonesian government's quality standards.
Li also raised the issue with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at a dinner event at the Indonesia-China Business Summit held later that day. In return, Kalla asked China to increase its imports of Indonesia's flagship products such as crude palm oil (CPO), biodiesel, coffee, and tropical fruits. Kalla hopes that increased exports to China would improve Indonesia-China's trade value.
Indonesia-China's trade value was at US$58.8 billion in 2017, said Kalla. But Indonesia still suffered a trade deficit of over US$12.6 billion. Accordingly, efforts need be made to address trade balance and reduce this deficit.
Li then told President Jokowi that his country would increase the import quota for Indonesian palm oil and derivatives by 500,000 tons. The increase, said the Chinese Premier, is intended to help boost Indonesia's economic growth and improve farmers' welfare.
Read the full article in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
