Commerce Ministry Held Trade Mission to Egypt, with Coffee and Palm Oil as Mainstay Products
06/12/2017 (Netralnews) - CAIRO, NNC - Efforts to improve trade relations and export performance continue to be intensified by the Ministry of Commerce through the Directorate General of National Export Development (Ditjen PEN).
The success of a transaction of $3.05 billion in trade missions to Japan led by Commerce Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, the Ministry of Commerce is now targeting non-traditional export markets for coffee and palm oil products. Led by Director General of NED Arlinda, the trade mission took place from December 5 to December 8, 2017 in Cairo, Egypt.
"With this trade mission, Indonesia seeks to increase exports to non-traditional countries. The leading products brought through this trade mission are coffee and palm oil and Indonesia also intends to identify potential trade barriers between Indonesia and Egypt and strengthen trade relations both countries," explained Arlinda in an official statement on Wednesday (12/6/2017).
She explained that this trade mission brings 15 Indonesian companies from various sectors, including palm oil, coffee, cocoa, pepper, paper and services. Based on data from Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia's coffee exports to Egypt in 2016 reached $41.25 million.
Indonesian coffee is the largest product purchased by Egyptian buyers at Trade Expo Indonesia 2017 with a transaction of $30 million. Meanwhile, the export of palm oil to Egypt in the same year reached $657.28 million, while Indonesia's palm oil exports to the world reached $18.1 billion.
"There are still many opportunities for coffee and palm oil exports to Egypt and hopefully through this trade mission we can increase the export of these two commodities to Egypt," Arlinda said.
Total trade between Indonesia-Egypt in 2016 reached $1.46 billion with export value of Indonesia amounted to $1.1 billion and imports$352 million. Thus Indonesia was surplus $758.3 million.
Meanwhile, the total trade between the two countries from January to September 2017 reached $1.12 million or a surplus for Indonesia of $726.10 million.