The Association of Indonesian Export Companies (GPEI) continues to encourage increased exports of Indonesian spice commodities. GPEI sees Indonesian spice industry products as one of the preferred export commodities in 2022. This was conveyed by GPEI DPP Chair Benny Soetrisno when giving a briefing at the 2022 National Working Meeting (Rakernas) at Hotel Metro Semarang. "We encourage export commodities, especially spices, to be increased again," said Benny. Regarding spices, not all countries have them, but all need them, such as pepper and cinnamon, although only a few use it, but multiplied by the billions of people there. This is what makes Benny continue to encourage the spice industry players to improve the quality of spice production so that it continues to grow. "All countries are interested in Indonesian spices, because they have different specifications and characteristics," he said.
The biggest contributors of spices currently come from areas outside Java, such as Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Sumatra, although the logistics collection center is in East Java. The Chairperson of GPEI Central Java, Ade Siti Muksodah, said the same thing. According to him, acceleration is needed so that the export of spice commodities will increase in 2022. Although Central Java is not the main source of spice production, Central Java has all exported commodities. However, currently, the problem is technology, raw materials, management and product packaging. "That is a crucial thing and is still on process. We are still limited in human resources, both SMEs, exporters and potential exporters to compete with outsiders," he said. Therefore, GPEI makes an incubation program, especially for spice commodities, from pre to post. Currently in Central Java, there are two regions that have expertise in the management of spice products, namely in Semarang and Magelang. "The products have been exported to Dubai, the Middle East and Europe," he added. He added, Central Java has advantages in the agricultural sector (up 11 percent) and fisheries (up about 8 percent). Although not significant, but shows a fairly large percentage. "We hope that in the future the government will further refine regulations from upstream to downstream so that SMEs can maximize their business," he added.
