Indonesia sees demand cut from major export destination countries: minister

Indonesia saw decreasing demands on commodities from countries of major export destination from January to April this year, but recorded significant growth of non- oil and gas products to alternative destinations during the period, an Indonesian minister said here on Tuesday.

The reducing demands were showed in the decreasing export to Japan that decreased 20.8 percent, China 20.9 percent, the United States 2.8 percent and Singapore 21.2 percent compared to the same period of last year.

"Despite export decreases to those countries, we recorded export growth in various non-oil and gas sectors that comprised of farming that saw a 0.7 percent growth. The highest growth was seen in jewelry products that reached 26.9 percent," Trade Minister Rahmat Gobel said.

He added that other non-oil and products that saw significant export growths were coffee, tea, spices at 26.7 percent and wooden products at 7.2 percent. He said those export growths were recorded from January to May this year.

Those products were demanded by alternative export destination countries consisted of Switzerland, Tanzania, Algeria, India, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

The minister said exports to those countries were apparently vibrant with Switzerland recorded the highest growth of 1,800 percent, Tanzania 154.8 percent, Algeria 53 percent, Saudi Arabia 21.1 percent, India 11.9 percent and Malaysia 2 percent.

During the period, the minister said, exports on Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and coals were decreased by 21.5 and 4.8 percent respectively compared to the same period of last year. Endite