Spices, the Most Hunted World Commodities
Spices have high economic value and a long history for Indonesia, and certainly Indonesia still known as the spice-producing country. This country is also known as Spice Island; this is one reason why the Portuguese entered Indonesia. This was said by the Director of Spice and Tonic Crops in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ir. Azwar AB, M.Si in the talk show titled "The Fate of Indonesia Spices" in Agrinex Expo 2012 at Jakarta Convention Center (1/3), held in cooperation with the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Performax and Ministry of Agriculture.
Indonesia Export of spices at present can reach 60 trillion. Spices are considered to be very promising, offering a lot of business opportunities. The orientation can go to the pharmacy and even food. However, according Ir. Azwar, both upstream and downstream sectors should be greatly supported by various sectors including industry.
One constraint of the development of Indonesian spices is the many conversions, for example what was originally spice plantation is converted to oil palm plantation and of 126 commodities, only 15.5 percent are cultivated. Anwar emphasizes that the world’s needs for spices grow very rapidly; even South Korea will develop the cosmetics industry. Dr. Ir. P Asril Wahid of the Spice Council of Indonesia added that in Europe there is a trend to use a cinnamon stick to prevent the rising blood sugar. For the commodities of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, Indonesia is the world’s major producer.
Asril said it is important for the government and academicians to produce value-added products from the spice commodities of Indonesia, for example all parts of coconut can be utilized. This potential should be explored for spices. In addition there should be a synergy between farmers and industry.
Present and participating in the talk show was Adi Sasono. He suggested that in the future the marketing aspects must be considered because with this we can improve the spices. He further recommended Education of Product Standardization for the farmers, and most importantly the farmers ought to be paid immediately. So far they have received very little amount. "About 70% are usually owned by the trade sector," he explained. (Mtd)
