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Writer's pictureDoddy Hidayat

Restoring the glory of coconut in Indonesia

Updated: Feb 24, 2022

Located exactly on the equator, Indonesia is a paradise archipelago for coconut palms.

Hundreds of origin traditional name around the world for a fruit that has a lot of benefits. It comes from the tree of life, because not only the fruit, every single part of the tree is useful and valuable - in Indonesia is called kelapa or well known as coconut.


Located exactly on the equator, Indonesia is a paradise archipelago for coconut palms. Indonesia has the second longest coastline in the world after Canada, and you can imagine coconut trees growing abundantly along the coastline to the entire lowlands, looking tall and majestic towering and waving palm trees.


However, the natural potential has not been developed by commodity agriculture stakeholders so that for many years, coconut is not enough to provide welfare for farmers and the surrounding community.


There are at least four basic problems related to the growth of coconut commodities in Indonesia:


Resources existence

  • 60% of the plants are over 30 years old.

  • The threat of crop damage reaches >500.000 Ha.

  • 5% reduced land a year due to land conversion

  • The preservation of the sustainable coconut ecosystem is not yet a priority


Farmer welfare issues

  • Urgent daily needs.

  • Caught in rent.

  • Financial access is needed for seeds, production facilities and activities.

  • Limited market access, depending on middlemen


Low value added product

  • Export sales are dominated by whole coconut & copra (70%).

  • The largest derivative product is only coconut oil (world's No. 2).

  • Other derivatives products are not included in the top 10 even though the Asia Pacific market (5.1 B$).


Opportunity loss

  • National coconut growth continues to decline in the last 10 years.

  • The large export growth is due to the quality and quantity of the product.


The world's demand for coconut has never diminished and even continues to grow. the trend of veganism lifestyle, the demand for superfoods and the sustainability of food security for world consumption are the driving forces so that we no longer have any reason to let this potential of God's grace go to waste. It is time for us to restoring the glory of coconut in Indonesia.



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