The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) will help facilitate cigarette manufacturers to export their products to expand market share abroad. “The input I received was that one of the cigarette producers in Kudus encountered obstacles when trying to export cigarettes because of the various requirements,” said Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan when he visited the cigarette production warehouse of Sukun Wartono Indonesia Ltd. in Kudus, Wednesday (28/9/2022). With the complaint, the ministry will try to enter into a bilateral agreement so that this cigarette commodity can have a broader scope of exports. “What do they want, as well as what Indonesia wants. Either with countries in the ASEAN region or with China, Africa, and Egypt. Later, convenience will also be discussed for each country, so that domestic entrepreneurs get export convenience, and vice versa from outside countries can also import without obstacles,” he said.

With the agreement, he is optimistic that the export of cigarettes from Indonesia can also be more manageable. He revealed that the government continues to try to absorb the aspirations of labor-intensive business actors. This includes an input to related problems in the field during product marketing. His visit to Kudus Regency by visiting two large cigarette factories was also to find out whether there were obstacles faced and what business actors needed so that the government could help. Moreover, the cigarette factory is a labor-intensive industry so it needs attention. “When this labor-intensive industry runs well, they can absorb the produce from tobacco and clove farmers to the maximum. The impact will certainly have an impact on the welfare of tobacco and clove farmers. The workforce can also work in peace, as well as state income from the cigarette tax sector will increase,” he concluded.

Source: https://jateng.antaranews.com/berita/465337/kemendag-mengupayakan-kemudahan-ekspor-komoditas-rokok