Siau Famous 'Pala' Plays Key Role in Indonesia-Europe Relation

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The Indonesian government under President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla is pushed to maximize its potential through blatant improvement in various sectors as they realize the imperativeness of progress in an increasingly competitive global environment. 

Some of President Jokowi’s priority programs are currently underway with Cabinet Ministers deemed responsible for the program's execution and success.

From a wide range of crucial sectors, trade sector counts as one of the most pivotal factors that allows for Indonesia to actively compete at global scale.

It should not be an issue for Indonesia to excel in its trading industry as it is already effortlessly equipped with abundant agricultural, fisheries and forestry resources. 

For a relatively long time has Indonesia been targeted by European colonial powers. Countries with no imperialist ambition also necessitated exploration into Indonesia as it was viewed to be an important destination with plenty supply of needed primary resources that could largely impact the economic development.

"Nutmeg for a relatively long time has been our main exported commodity with our market predominantly European which covers 37% out of the total exported nutmeg commodities worldwide", The Director of Standardization from Indonesian Trade Ministry, Frida Adiati shared to Liputan6.com, Siau, North Sulawesi, on Thursday 24 June 2015.

This suggests that Indonesia's popularity in trading industry from when it was known to be the ‘Dutch East Indies’ to what it is now remains and will continue to attract foreign traders. 

Indonesia’s advantage here is that it is already prosperous enough to assure food security. 

But surely as the time progresses, some failed to properly manage and cultivate these resources thereby impacting the overall quality.

When the quality of these Indonesian natural resources reported to have been a poor one, the impact can be felt immediately at national, regional or worst yet, global level with trading value likely to experience drastic decline caused by the equally shrinking demand in the global market.

This is an issue that best described the challenge Indonesian nutmeg trade industry currently encounters. 

Indonesian nutmeg plant is one of its many natural resources in a form of spice that was successful enough to draw in European powers for a number of centuries. 

The spice was immediately transformed from merely a simple fruit growing on a tree with supportive humidity level to globally acknowledged and valued commodity.

The spice's prominence has helped Indonesia (formerly known as Dutch East Indies) to become a thriving trading destination hundreds of years ago despite its terribly distinct social, political and economic patterns at that particular time.

Siau Island located within the region of North Sulawesi has been known to be the breeding ground for the best type of nutmeg plant in the world.

The European Union delegation to Indonesia joined by representatives from the Indonesian Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Agriculture departed to Siau island on 24 June 2015 to implement its Trade Support Programme II (TSP II) with focus placed essentially upon the nutmeg plant. 

Within two days of the joint parties visitation to the island, they took the time to meet with some of the local nutmeg farmers. These farmers presented an issue which caught the TSP II attention.

They claimed to be profoundly discontented over declining price of Siau nutmeg which comes as a big misfortune for them as the nutmeg plant has been their primary source of funding. 

Disappointment worsens following reports of European demand equally declining.

The Indonesian Director of Standardization from Trade Ministry, Frida Adiati confirmed the fact that the price has gone down and explained how presence of competitor contributes to such declining interest. 

She however, believes that there is a silver lining coming out of this issue.

"Well, actually I think that the downturn of nutmeg price issue is a classic one, because it is normal to accept the fact that supplies of nutmeg can also come from other parts of the world. If you look into our nutmeg export data, our export value actually shows a positive trend for the last five years with its increase coming up as 5%. But of course, if you see judge it through the export volume, yes it is declining," Frida explained to Liputan6.com correspondent during her visit to the nutmeg plant drying site in Siau island on Thursday 24 June 2015.

The European Union Head of Cooperation to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN, Minister Franck Viault was also present at the location and further explained how the reason for lowered demand that has evidently caused for the price to equally decline is not just because of the availability of other supplying region such as the Country Island of Grenada, but also due to reports claiming the discovery of ‘aflatoxin’ (toxic fungus) in many of exported Siau nutmeg.

"The quality of nutmeg is not only defined by its size, scent or how dry it is. What is most important is that it should not contain aflatoxin which seems to develop in warm humid climate," Minister Franck continued explaining.

In the recent years, there has been a notification from the European Union preventing the entry nutmeg shipment because it was learned that the quality did not meet their standard and mostly contain aflatoxin.

"For European Union, it is very important to protect the health of consumers. So that is why the food standard is very high," he concluded. (Akp/Ein)