Jakarta, Indonesia was set up as guest country at the Coffee Expo Seoul exhibition which will be held on 6-9 April 2017 at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) Seoul, South Korea.

This prestigious predicate  will bring Indonesian coffee as the best coffee product in the world, which will be given an honor, strategical position, and desirves a major media coverage in Korea.

Secretary of Directorate General of National Export Development in Indonesian Trade Ministry,  Mr. Ari Satria said that was not easy to achieve this honorable position at this prestigious exhibition. The country which is producing coffee should be able to exhibit the best quality coffee.

“I hope that coffee product  is capable to improve the trade balance between Indonesia and South Korea, which is  deficit. Therefore, the potential of coffee exports to Korea are very huge,” he said in a writting statement in Jakarta, Monday (02/01/2017).

After being crowned as the guest country, said Ari, it will boost the coffee exporters to compete and take advantage of this great opportunity.

“The election of Indonesia as a guest country must be utilized optimally, especially in terms of the promotion on Indonesian diversity of  coffee variant product. Indonesian  Coffee  has great potential in the South Korean market, because consuming coffee has become the South Korean people’s lifestyle,” he said.

As a 4th largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia, Indonesia must continue to promote coffee all around the world.

“Although the Indonesian coffee has a price which is relatively higher than the price of  Brazil and Vietnam coffee, Indonesian Coffee still superior because it has a good taste and unique characteristic which is not owned  by coffee of Brazil and Vietnam,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Head of ITPC Busan Indra Wijayanto said promotion of Indonesian main product in South Korea, especially coffee, is also being conducted with various innovation. One of them is a weekly program called Wednesday Coffee Experience. In that program, Korean company and  public are invited to come to the showrooms at ITPC Busan’s office to enjoy Indonesian coffee and snacks product .

“This program is perceived to be quite interesting and brings positive results. The number of visitor is increasing and the response to Indonesian product is also quite good, “he said.

Hopefully, through the promotion of innovation, Indonesian non-oil trade deficit against South Korea can keep suppressed. Indonesia’s non-oil trade balance against South Korea in 2015 had a deficit of US $ 838.93 million. The deficit value decreased by 58.87 per cent of the value of Indonesian non-oil deficit in 2014 amounted to US $ 2.04 billion.

Meanwhile, market opportunities coffee products in South Korea is still quite large. This can be seen from the value of coffee imports to South Korea the world in 2015 amounted to US $ 547.05 million. Meanwhile, the export value of Indonesia’s coffee products to South Korea in 2015 amounted to US $ 10.81 million.

This value increased by 30.86 percent from  Indonesian coffee exports in 2014  at US $ 7.47 million. The trends in Indonesian coffee exports to South Korea during the last 5 years is increase about 6.89 percent.

In addition, the decline of  Indonesian non-oil exports to South Korea should also could be anticipated with promoting non-oil exports  products futher more than primary products which have dominated Indonesian non-oil exports to South Korea.

“Marine products, food and beverage are product which should be able to  encourage and campaign massively  by approaching importer companies in South Korea,” he said. (Dny / NRM)