Farmers and activists demand the government revise the 2009 Trade Ministry Regulation limiting rattan exports, arguing it could destroy the domestic rattan industry.
“The regulation has limited the country’s rattan exports,” Julius Hoesan from the Indonesian Rattan Businessmen Association (APRI) said in a dialog here on Wednesday.
The regulation allows annual exports of up to 35,000 tons of semi-finished rattan.
Julius said Indonesia’s rattan consumption was only 40,000 tons per year while its potential production of natural rattan could reach 696,000 tons annually.
“What are we going to do with the rest of the rattan produced? It causes rattan prices to decline.”
He said the government should instead allow the export of surplus rattan products. Lisman Sumardjani, chairman of the Indonesian Rattan Foundation, said the total domestic consumption of rattan was 75,000 tons per year, leaving the country over supplied with 621,000 tons.
He calculated that Indonesia could earn US$1.8 billion per year if rattan was exported as half-finished products.
“We will receive more if we turn rattan into furniture or crafts and export them,” he said.
Lisman also said that due to oversupply in the country, the price of rattan had decreased, affecting the income of rattan farmers.
“The price of one kilogram of rattan used to equal three kilograms of rice,” he said. “But, now one kilogram of rattan is equal to 250 grams of rice or Rp 1,500 [16 US cents].”
Indonesia is the world’s biggest rattan producer, contributing 82 percent of the world’s total output. Due to export limitations, rattan has become scarce on the world market, encouraging the production of synthetic rattan.
Djauhari of the Consortium for Supporting Community Based Forest System Management said 60 percent of the country’s rattan handicraft producers faced bankruptcy because of the policy.
He also criticized the policy’s stipulation that only rattan producing regions may export the product.
“The policy said only regions such as Kalimantan and Sulawesi may export rattan, but poor infrastructures in those areas hinder the commodity’s export,” he said. (map)
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