Basically the campaign to save the coconut plantation (tree of life)
is to revive the integrated coconut industry. Damaged and not maintained
of coconut plantations due to lack of funding to maintain and develop
it in a sustainable manner.
Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses
biological resources or living things to produce products, processes,
and services in the economic sector within the framework of a
sustainable economic system.
The Monas monument in Jakarta is so monumental and so famous that almost
all Indonesians know it, even the Jakarta province uses the monument as
its government logo or icon. But very few know that the 32 kg gold
which is the top of the Monas monument, 28 kg or 87.5% (say almost 90%)
comes from the contribution of coconut entrepreneurs, namely from the
copra trade. Coconut has indeed experienced the glory of even having a
large role in Indonesia's independence. A number of ammunition of wars
to various important events in the framework of Indonesia's independence
were financed by the copra trade. Copra is the raw material for coconut
oil which later becomes a number of derivative products that are highly
needed by humans. The era of the triumph of copra or coconut oil
revolves around the transition period of the 19th century to the 20th
century or more precisely between the 1870s to the 1950s and its heyday
in the 1920s.
Why now copra and coconut oil are especially sinking and unable to
compete with palm oil? The long history of trade competition is the
answer. Some parties, especially the American Soybean Association (ASA)
accuse coconut oil as an evil oil that contains cholesterol and
saturated fat clogging coronary arteries. The accusation has never been
proven right, in fact it proved to be the opposite, but it is one of the
main reasons for the destruction of the global copra and coconut trade.
The campaign and the tropical oil war took about 30 years or in the
1950s to the end of the 1980s in the United States and eventually the
Indonesian coconut industry collapsed.
If we look at palm oil, it turns out the same thing happened. For some
time Indonesian palm oil has also received a negative campaign due to
environmental destruction so that Europeans do not want to buy palm oil
from Indonesia. It could be and it is probable that this is also an
effort to weaken and make the palm oil industry will also be dropped
later. But because it has only been running for a few years, it seems
that the effect is not very visible at this time. And if it is done
massively and continuously and there is no significant resistance, then
it is not impossible that the fate of the palm oil industry is also
similar to the coconut industry. The statement that 'only donkeys fall
into the same hole twice' is something that needs to be pondered deeply
to analyze this.
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| Coconut Fruit |
As an additional reference, Indonesia, which in the colonial era as one
of the main producers and exporters of cane sugar, is currently also
having a misfortune because besides being no longer an exporter, it has
become one of the largest sugar importers. In 2016 Indonesia became the
largest sugar importer in the world with a value of $ 2.1 billion or
around Rp.28.4 trillion. The value of Indonesia's imports was greater
than the three other importing countries whose populations were actually
greater than those of Indonesia, namely America ($ 1.9 billion), China
($ 1.2 billion) and India ($ 922 million). There are quite a lot of
sugar factories in Indonesia, namely more than 180 units, but most of
them are currently not actively producing and most are on Java. The
total national sugar production is 2.2 million tons with a sugar cane
plantation area of around 0.5 million hectares and an estimated need of
5.7 million tons so that production still needs to be increased.
Indonesia, the majority of which still exports raw materials for
industries in other countries, also indicates that it is a developing
country, so this condition should also be improved. Export of a variety
of finished products or a minimum of intermediate products must be
sought. Export of whole coconut is one thing that must be avoided and
replaced with exports of processed products. When we talk about reviving
the integrated coconut industry, but on the other hand, whole coconuts
as raw materials are directly exported without processing it is a lie or
it's useless. Industries without raw materials will surely die.
Exporting whole coconut with an estimated number of four billion items
annually is a setback. How not, in the history of the glory of the
coconut, Indonesia exports in the form of a minimum of copra, while
today it even exports whole coconuts. Industry era 4.0 also has no
meaning with conditions like this.
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| Whole coconut |
Of course it needs good regulation and cooperation between various
parties to overcome this. Indeed, there are also policies from developed
countries to limit the development of developing countries' industries,
for example during the heyday of coconut in Philippines many exported
copra to the United States and the United States gave some import taxes
to the Philippines on condition that the Philippines not develop its
coconut industry. And indeed in that era many copra processing
industries located in Europe and the United States.
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| Palm oil fruit |
Even in the current era of bioeconomy all commodities of agriculture,
forestry, fisheries and animal husbandry should support each other to
make a strong economy, for example with agro-forestry will be able to
optimize the potential of land and environmental balance. Don't let the
dichotomy and contradiction occur so that between bioeconomy-based
products weaken each other, for example coconut oil and palm oil should
be able to have their own segments or even from the beginning it has
been designed that coconut for mainly non-oil food products and palm oil
for oil products because the productivity of oil per hectare is the
largest of all plants. Coconut oil and palm oil (CPO) have different
qualities, because coconut oil has a medium chain bond or MCFA (Medium
Chain Fatty Acid) while palm oil (CPO) has a long chain bond or LCFA
(Long Chain Fatty Acid). Coconut oil which is rich in lauric acid is
similar to palm kernel oil (PKO). Besides being found in coconut oil and
palm kernel oil (PKO), lauric acid is also found in mother breast milk
.
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| CPO (Crude Palm Oil) |
When the European Union for example with its
bioeconomy
makes various efforts to obtain various sources of energy, food,
chemicals and so on from living things or biomass, then we should
realize that Indonesia's position in the tropics is the best position to
lead the bioeconomy era on condition that managed properly. Do not let
the great potential just be useless and even bring disaster like some
time ago, namely natural wealth invites the invaders and the Indonesian
people were colonized due to the devide et impera politic. As a result,
instead became a slave in their own country. Indonesia should be
the largest producer of biomass, the biomass country.
As palmae plant groups there are many similarities between palm oil and
coconut. And specifically the case in Indonesia, for example the
productivity of coconut and palm oil is also still less than other
countries like Malaysia, so this needs to be improved. But the number of
palm oil processing industries starting from the production of CPO and
its derivatives is currently more than coconut, which is estimated to be
around 1000 pieces while the area of palm oil plantations is also
almost 4 times that of coconut plantations. Palm oil production is
currently reaching 38.17 million tons for CPO or 41.98 tons in total
with palm kernel oil (PKO) in 2017 or the largest in the world. With CPO
production of 38.17 million tons, the use in the food sector,
especially cooking oil, is 3-5% (equivalent to approximately 2 million
tons). In other sectors, CPO derivative products such as oleochemical
3.8 million tons / year ago, the energy sector, biodiesel 2 , 5 million
tons, and the rest export around 70%.
There is an analysis that indicates that the coconut industry will rise
with a number of products starting to demand the market, including the
most striking coconut water, followed by coconut milk, dessicated
coconut and VCO. But unfortunately most of the success is not in
Indonesia but in other countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka and
India. In fact, there are even products whose raw materials from
Indonesia after being ready to sell products are sold back to Indonesia,
namely coconut milk which is the source of coconut from Indonesia. Thus
the actual analysis that the coconut industry began to stretch has a
point especially at the global level, while for the domestic indicators
there are almost no indications, only small spots are still too early to
be said to rise. With an estimated 14 billion nuts produced annually in
Indonesia, there are around 3 billion liters of coconut water, or when
converted to VCO to 1.4 million tons, dessicated coconut to 1.7 million
tons while coconut shells are 2.5 million tons and coir/fiber of 5.6
million tons.
Indeed, in the current era of bioeconomy, it is a natural thing that in
the past it became trash and discarded, and now it is a commodity that
is sought and even competed, for example coconut water that was once
thrown away, is now accommodated as raw material for nata de coco and
bottled coconut water, coconut shells and coconut husks, then palm
kernel shells which were originally only thrown away as a road hardener/
improvement are now widely sought after and used as fuel for power
plants with very large demand, more details can be read
here.
Some coconut products that are starting to be in demand, there is
already demand and it is projected to continue to increase is coconut
water. The Philippines exported 484 thousand liters of coconut water in
2009 to 17.9 million liters in 2012 and in 71.7 million liters in 2015
or there was a 141-fold increase in 8 years. To produce 71.7 million
liters of coconut water, 261 million coconuts are needed per year. And
it is estimated that the bottled coconut water market currently reaches
13 trillion rupiah. Unfortunately there is no information for Indonesia.
Almost all of the coconut water products are exported to the United
States and usually a close relationship with the buyer's country which
is closely related to historical factors will facilitate business
transactions. Maybe that's why the no. 2 coconut producing country in
the world can export more their coconut products to the United States.
Coconut milk packaging is used not only for cooking but also for
vegetable milk, such as soy milk. China is a country that consumes a lot
of coconut milk to replace animal milk, with China as its biggest
consumer. Whereas dessicated coconut, there are currently 3 main
producers namely the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. At present it
is estimated that more than 20 dessicated coconut plants in Indonesia.
The demand for dessicated coconut was quite large at 151 thousand tons
in 1990 to 248 thousand tons in 2008.
Will the Indonesian coconut industry be able to rise? Of course it can,
but there are a number of conditions that must be met. The rise of the
coconut industry must be led by people who have adequate capability so
as to understand the core problems and be able to map problems
accurately in this sector and provide solutions. A leader is a person
who has a vision and lives or implements his vision until the goal is
reached. Leaders who do not have the strong driving force to implement
their vision will not have the drive to be moved to create the solutions
needed. With the efforts of various parties and always praying to Allah
SWT, God willing, will be realized.
Coconut is very close to people's lives, so the community can actively
participate in advancing the integrated coconut industry. Integrated
coconut industries can be made in centers of coconut plantations, even
in remote locations as long as there is access to market their products.
Market access and control are important. When the market has been
acquired and controlled, production activities can be easily carried
out. It's useless to build a factory or industry if you don't have a
market. The pattern of mutually beneficial cooperation (non-usury) such
as syirkah with profit sharing will make the industry stronger. Insha
Allah. That is because from coconut can produce a lot of products that
can be commercialized and will bring blessings. Large companies have
also been prepared to take this opportunity, so do not miss it. Things
that need to be pursued so that assets do not only revolve in certain
circles as is currently the case with the application of capitalist
economy. With the current economic model it takes 800 years for the
bottom billion people to reach 10% of global income. As a result of the
current liberalism and capitalism, the richest 10% control 85% of global
wealth. The three richest people in the world have assets of more than
47 countries GDP, the lowest gross GDP. 1% of the richest people own
more than 50% of the world's wealth. This huge inequality should be
overcome immediately with a fair and prosperous economy.
Will coconut be back victorious and become a locomotive in the current
bioeconomy era? Can coconut be able to move the economic sector back
heroically as an important commodity that has a role in Indonesia's
independence? Or is it even in the 'lullabies' with the many potentials
of this country but is unable to exploit it and instead invites new
'invaders'? Wallahu 'alam
