Indonesian tea product is favored by Malaysia as evidence in the recent purchase deal between Malaysian buyers and state plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) III Holding amounting to USD 4 million or around Rp 57 billion.
The purchase of Indonesian tea by Malaysian buyers took place during Selangor International Expo Food and Beverage (SIE F&B) 2021 on Nov. 18-21, 2021 in Kuala Lumpur.
The director general of National Export Development at the Ministry of Trade, Didi Sumedi, said the participation of the Trade Ministry and PTPN III Holding in this exhibition aims to continue to encourage Indonesia’s export performance to Malaysia, especially the food and beverage sector after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Transactions that occur at this exhibition show that Indonesian food and beverage products are in great demand by the Malaysian market,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Hermono said SIE F&B 2021 was the first international exhibition in the food and beverage sector to be held in a hybrid, combining offline and online. “The enthusiasm of business actors in Malaysia is very high after months of experiencing restrictions by the government. This can be seen from the number of visitors, which far exceeded previous estimates,” he said.
In addition, Indonesian Trade Attache in Malaysia, Deden Muhammad Fajar Shiddiq, said that according to data from the Malaysian Statistics Department, in the January-September 2021 period, Malaysia’s total imports of tea products from Indonesia amounted to RM 39.6 million or around Rp 134.8 billion.
This amount was an 8.25 percent increase from the same period in the previous year. This figure places Indonesia as the second largest tea exporter to Malaysia after China.
“In the period from January to September 2021, Malaysia’s tea imports rose 4.1 percent from the same period the previous year. This should be used as a momentum to continue to increase sales of Indonesian tea to Malaysia. We are taking the Malaysian Tea Association as a partner to promote tea here,” explained Deden.
Meanwhile, assistant manager of Marketing Division of PTPN III Holding Asep Barkah said during the four days of the event, PTPN III Holding’s tea products received a lot of requests from tea entrepreneurs in Malaysia. “This is because this neighboring country is one of Indonesia’s tea export destinations,” he said.
“The volume of Indonesian bulk tea exports to Malaysia every year is recorded at around 8,500-9,500 tons. At SIE 2021, we managed to get three contracts with a total value of USD 4 million and it is possible that the transaction will continue to grow because the assessment process has been successfully carried out,” said Asep at the closing of the exhibition on Sunday (21/11).
Currently, he added, the global tea trade is quite competitive given various other countries such as Kenya, Sri Lanka and India are also trying to enter the Malaysian market, where people have a fairly high level of tea consumption.
“However, Indonesian tea is still the prima donna for the Malaysian people with its quality and taste characteristics that match the tastes of the Malaysian market,” he said.
Vice President of the Indonesia Trade Association (ITA) Kandi Rahayu added, in addition to tea, this exhibition also presents various food and beverage products distributed by Indonesian businessmen in Malaysia which is a member of ITA.
There are also various SME products that are imported directly from Indonesia and have received promising responses from business actors in Malaysia. This is because the number of Indonesian diaspora in Malaysia is the largest in the world and the market characteristics are very suitable for Indonesian SME products,” concluded Kandi. (KH)