Letter: Don’t ignore food processing

This refers to the article titled “Govt to focus on developing key manufacturing industries,” (Dec. 1). The Industry Ministry should also take note of the food processing industries.

China, India and Vietnam are becoming big buyers of agricultural products. They have concentrated on importing raw materials from Indonesia and maximizing their profits by reselling to other countries.

Sometimes, Indonesian processors have to import the same materials back for processing.

One example is raw cashew nuts – most of our raw nuts are taken away by Indian and Vietnamese buyers for processing. This leaves the people of East Java, Southeast Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) without raw materials.

These locations provide jobs for local people. If you look at the statistics, cashew kernel exports from India and Vietnam earn those countries many millions of dollars.

Our wish is to see more jobs for our local people year round. Cashew nuts processing gives many people employment. There are no nut-shelling machines for cashews.

Breaking nuts individually means jobs for many thousands of people. Indonesia produces about 65,000 tons of raw cashew nuts a year, and only less than 15 percent is available for local processing: Most of it is bought by India and Vietnam.

Also note that raw cashew nuts from NTT are known to be the best in the world. The buyers from these two countries are in the cashew growing areas, and buy them directly from the collectors at lower prices.
 
Anna
Surabaya