Lampung's Ornamental Plant to Enter Turkish Market for the First Time

TheIndonesia.co - A farmers group in Lampung is preparing to export 10,500 ornamental plants to Turkey and enter its market for the first time.

The Srirejeki Adiporo women farmers group (locally known as Kelompok Wanita Tani, or KWT) in Trimurjo subdistrict, Central Lampung regency, has confirmed that 10,500 Aglaonema plant seeds will be exported the meet the Turkish market demand.

“There is a demand of 10,500 Aglaonema plant seeds from Turkey, and right now, we’re currently in the process of packaging,” leader of KWT Srirejeki Adiporo Margiono said on Sunday, August 14, as reported by Antara.

Margiono said the group involves 99 farmers and seeds originating from other regencies to meet the demand.

“The demand surely creates impacts to farmers in terms of the numbers of plants that they must produce. Usually, [they only sell] 100 to 200 seeds, but now it’s in thousands, and their sales increase,” he explained.

Lampung Agricultural Quarantine Center said ornamental plants have potential since there have been demands from different countries for them. And for Aglaonema, the agency said local farmers will benefit from the market’s growing interest on the flowering plant.

“The price of one seed or one trunk is Rp 5,000 [US$0.34]. Previously, farmers sold them at Rp 3,000, so the profit is around Rp 2,000,” plant quarantine sub-coordinator at Lampung Agricultural Quarantine Center Irsan Nuhantoro revealed.

Despite the upsides, Nuhantoro reminded that ornamental plant export is complicated because it starts right from farming process. And in order to speed up the process, the agency will employ in-line inspection.

“In the future, the establishment of independent plant quarantine will accelerate the process for export because our office will only need to print the certificate,” Nuhantoro explained.

The Indonesian Ornamental Plant Association revealed that currently, Aglaonema is the only decorative plant from Lampung that has been registered for export.

“There is great potential for the export of several varieties of ornamental plants from Indonesia. Based on our research on European and Middle East countries, the value of these plants is quite high. However, we are always behind other countries due to long licensing process,” the association’s representative Bonar Martua Sitorus warned.

Therefore, he called for regions to make necessary process completed faster and more efficiently.