Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki encourages the competitiveness of coconut commodities through cooperatives. Teten said, the potential of the coconut industry is very large, both in the domestic market and in the export market. “Almost everything from coconut, from leaves, fruit, to fiber is useful and has high value. In terms of contributing to the country's foreign exchange, coconut agribusiness is ranked 4th after palm oil, rubber, and cocoa," said Teten at the Virtual Integrated Coconut MSME Development Innovation event with Export Quality and Competitiveness, Tuesday (9/11/2021).

Teten revealed, in the second quarter of 2020, Indonesia's coconut exports were recorded at 988,000 tons or worth 519.2 million US dollars. This export volume was recorded to have increased by 16-17 percent compared to the same period in 2019. "We hope that coconut products and their processed products will continue to be developed, especially in South Minahasa Regency (North Sulawesi)," he said. In 2020, coconut production in Indonesia will reach 2.8 million tons, according to data from the Directorate General of Plantations at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Teten also mentioned 5 provinces with the largest coconut production, namely Riau 14.20 percent, North Sulawesi 8.92 percent, East Java 8.54 percent, North Maluku 7.52 percent, and Central Sulawesi 6.96 percent. North Sulawesi has a productivity of 1.2 tons of copra per hectare per year or higher than the national production of 1.0 tons of copra per hectare per year. The challenges of coconut development in North Sulawesi include that most of the coconut plants are old or unproductive and are attacked by pests and diseases over land use. There are 6 Indonesian coconut and processed products with high export value in the world, namely copra processed with an export value of 309.4 million US dollars with a market share of 25.5 percent and Indonesia is ranked 1st in the world.

Raw copra has an export value of 236.3 million dollars with a market share of 22.92 percent. Dried grated coconut has an export value of 178.8 million US dollars with a market share of 24.28 percent. Indonesia is ranked 2nd in the world after the Philippines. Coconut sugar, has an export value of 79.1 million dollars with a market share of 3.99 percent. "We continue to strive to increase the export contribution of SMEs. Currently, it is still 15.65 percent, still far from several other countries, such as Singapore with 41 percent, Thailand with 29 percent, or China which reached 60 percent. The government targets the export contribution of MSMEs to increase to 17 percent in 2024," said Teten.

Sources: https://money.kompas.com/read/2021/11/09/164337526/menkop-ukm-dorong-ekspor-kelapa-melalui-koperasi?page=all#page2