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Chinese state-owned firm eyes Indonesia for date exports
Jiangguoguo, a state-owned food manufacturer from China’s Xinjiang region, is eyeing Indonesia as an export destination for dates, and was encouraged by a factory visit last month by Imam Nasaruddin Umar of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque
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Ma Yulin, deputy president director of food manufacturer Jiangguoguo in China’s Xinjiang region, poses for a photograph on Sept. 25, 2023, in a shop at the company’s factory in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang. (JP/Aditya Hadi)
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iangguoguo, a state-owned food manufacturer from China’s Xinjiang region, is eyeing Indonesia as an export destination for dates and was encouraged by a factory visit last month by Imam Nasaruddin Umar of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.
"His wife [who joined her husband on the trip] is really interested in our products, especially the ones that combine dates and walnuts. According to her, it has a flavor that matches Indonesians’ sense of taste, their sweet tooth. And that is what we specialize in," Ma Yulin, the company’s deputy president director, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The executive explained that his firm viewed Indonesia as a promising market because of its status as the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. The company, which has not yet exported products to Indonesia, plans to pursue the opportunity now, banking on Nasaruddin's connections to Indonesian businesspeople.
Dates are a popular product among Muslims in Indonesia, especially during Ramadan, when demand for the fruit doubles. As they are not native to Indonesia, dates are imported from various countries.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the country imported 61,350 tonnes of dates last year, a 22.4 percent increase over the preceding year. The value of imported dates in 2022 amounted to US$86.26 million.
Most of the dates were imported from the Middle Eastern countries Egypt, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Ma said dates were a native fruit in China as people began cultivating date palms around 7,000 years ago. Furthermore, the government decided to make Xinjiang a specialized producer of dates.
