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Lack of standards stings Indonesian honey exports, producers say
Beekeepers in Java and Sumatra lament a lack of government support and note that Vietnam has created honey quality benchmarks and provides bees and land for farmers.
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Illustration photo of honey (Shutterstock/Eugenia Lucasenco)
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lack of quality benchmarks for honey production is hampering efforts of Indonesian farmers to export their products to other countries, a West Java beekeeper has said.
Eureka Indra Zatnika, who owns several farms in Bogor under the Madu Pak Lebah brand, says missing standardization has prevented local farmers from capitalizing on significant demand for honey and related products.
“In Indonesia, there are problems with complicated export procedures and confusing parameters on export quality. There is no exact metric that could serve as the basic standard to allow our products to go abroad,” Eureka said on Saturday, as quoted by news agency Antara.
He added that those requirements, which usually came from buyers rather than sellers, caused difficulties for smallholder farmers.
The situation was different in Vietnam, Eureka claimed, where the government had created its own quality standards for honey and was providing bee stocks and land for farmers.
“It’s so rare for farmers in Indonesia to have a direct connection for export products to countries of their preference. They usually use other vendors [to facilitate shipment],” he said.
Cheap honey flooding the market was another challenge, Eureka added, and brought down the overall value of the industry.
