I

ndonesia’s biggest fruit exporter Sewu Segar Group (SSG), which produces Cavendish bananas under Sunpride brand, aims to see its fruit exports reach 1 million tons by 2018, up from a half million tons last year.

The group, which sells bananas and pineapples to 60 countries including Japan and South Korea, is among the few exporters that can hit thousands of tons in annual exports.

Other major players like PT Alamanda Sejati Utama ship less than 10,000 tons of fruit each year.

Sewu Segar and Alamanda Sejati Utama are examples of the minority group of exporters that are able to sustain their businesses and even eye future growth despite various domestic challenges, particularly the difficulties of opening big-scale fruit plantations and obtaining a continuous supply.

At present, there are few large fruit exporters in the country due to the lack of focus from domestic business players on developing big-sized plantations, according to Indonesian Fruit and Vegetables Exporters Association chairman Sandy Widjaja.

Available data indicate sporadic planting, supporting Sandy’s view. Areas planted with fruits now only span 800,000 hectare, mostly at mini-scales, nationwide.

The government targets the development of another 400,000 ha of new fruit farms by 2025 to meet its ambition of making Indonesia the world’s biggest exporter by 2045.

Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN), a business unit of Sewu Segar Group, said the firm can sustain its numbers because of the significant profit margin from sales of high value varieties.

“The key is in focusing on high value varieties so we can have good prices. Easily planted ones like dragon fruit are oversupplied in the market so the price falls,” SSN managing director Martin Widjaja told The Jakarta Post recently.

The group plans to expand by developing big scale plantations in Aceh and Blitar, East Java. Its existing area in Lampung includes 19,000 ha for pineapples and 3,700 ha for varied fruit plants.

Indonesia’s fruit and nut exports amounted to US$775,922 in 2015, ranking the country 32nd as the biggest exporter globally, still behind neighbors Philippines and Thailand, according to Trade Map data.

Despite existing hurdles, new players are coming in as they are upbeat about potentials offered by overseas markets as well as minor rivalries caused by a small number of Indonesian fruit exporters.

Rio Erlangga, 31, is one of them. After quitting his job as a private company employee, he tried his luck by starting a banana business under CV Cipta Agri Pratama last year. Currently, Rio manages 27 ha of land in Cianjur, West Java, which he jointly owns with some independent farmers.

“Lots of farmers in Cianjur don’t have primary commodities. They just plant anything sporadically, so we give them seedlings and basic fertilizers and monitor them to ensure we have a quality harvest and sufficient supply,” he said.

To avoid lower-than-expected demand, the mid-sized enterprise only plants based on orders. This year it has exported the majority of its total 432 tons production to the Middle East. With cash injection from some investors, it will expand in 63 ha of land next year to fulfill purchase contracts from Middle East buyers.