The Government Should Improve its Regulations to Temporarily Ban of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Imports
The government should improve its policies on temporarily ban of fruits and vegetables importation. "The imposing a series of regulation to ban the importation of fresh fruits and vegetables temporarily is quite appropriate step, and will be more effective if the government will impose such regulations based on the sufficient amount of fresh fruits and vegetables stock in the country," said Professor of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Prof. Rudy Poerwanto on the Focus Group Discussion “Kesiapan IPB dalam Merespon Larangan Sementara Impor Buah” (Readiness of IPB to Respond the Restriction of Fruit Importation Temporarily).
If the estimated stock of fresh fruit and vegetables in the country is sufficient, then the government should restrict the importation of such commodities to avoid the falling prices of local fruits and vegetables that cause the loss of farmers as earlier as possible. "The government also needs to sort out a temporary ban on fruit and vegetables. The appropriate time to ban the importation of fresh fruits is the harvesting season, and the policy should be implied to all kind of fresh fruits. As the fruits are actually substitution. While the imposition of a temporary ban on the importation of fresh vegetables should select only certain type of vegetable, because it is unsubstitutable, "explained Prof. Rudy.
Professor of IPB on Tropical Fruits, Prof. Dr. Sobir, expressed that the government should intensify the consumption of local fruit campaign and while the restrictions on imports of horticultural products going on the government should try to increase local fruit production. "IPB has produced a lot of local varieties. The latest tropical fruits varieties invented by IPB are seedless guava, mangosteen, and rambutan respectively. This varieties are exportable commodities. "said Prof. Sobir. The Discussion was moderated by Dean of the Faculty of Human Ecology, IPB Dr. Arif Satria, and the special event also invited Professor in Agricultural Politics of IPB, Prof. Dr. Didin S. Damanhuri. (Wied).
