Pepper Farmers in Belitung Regency Are Aiming for Export

Pepper farmers in Belitung Regency are aiming for export opportunities. Agriculture market analyst for the Belitung Regency Agriculture and Food Security Service Yulihenri, said pepper production was growing rapidly. Therefore, some farmers have targeted the export market. Among them are Vietnam and other Southeast Asian regions.

“In selling post-harvest products, they always use several agents. The first is the Tanjung Pandan agent, and the next agent is an agent who usually sends to Vietnam,” said Yuli while accompanying the Press Tour with the Public Relations and Public Information Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture (28/01 /2023).

According to antaranews.com, on average, Belitung farmers process white pepper which has a fairly wide local market like Jakarta and part of Java Island. Meanwhile, to meet the needs of the export market, farmers prepare production of black pepper or green pepper.

“The usual processing is white pepper, but they also prepare black pepper to meet foreign requests. So if there is a request from outside, farmers will immediately process black pepper,” said Yuli.

He revealed that the potential and benefits of white pepper production are quite promising. This is because requests continue to come from MSME business actors under the auspices of Belliton Spice.

“The processing of pepper, the raw material for which is from farmer groups in Belitung Regency. After that, everything is to support Belitung tourism as a culinary specialty with pepper,” he continued.

Yuli also said that other commodities in Belitung also had pretty good developments. Such as oil palm, rubber and palm sugar plantations. Both the central and regional governments continue to encourage increased exports.