Elshinta.com – President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) Joko Widodo (Jokowi) plans to release kepok banana exports from East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan with the aim of going to several countries by the end of September 2022.

“President Jokowi will visit East Kutai Regency in September,” East Kutai Regent Ardiansyah Sulaiman told Samarinda on Wednesday.

Ardiansyah explained that the main program of President Jokowi’s working visit to East Timor was to meet farmers assisted by the Taruna Bina Mandiri (TBM) cooperative in Kaubun district.

It is known that East Kutai Regency has become a development center of Kepok banana. Not only that, Kutim is now also known as an export area for local varieties of Kepok bananas, to several countries in Asia and Europe with a turnover of several billion rupees.

Ardiansyah Sulaiman said Jokowi wanted to visit Bumi Untung Banua to monitor the banana export activities of local farmers.

“Our delivery of kepok bananas to East Timor exceeded the set target,” said Ardiansyah Sulaiman.

The regent of East Timor said President Jokowi planned that East Timor would be able to export kepok bananas at least once every three months. In fact, Kutim has been able to exceed this target, with export activities more than once every three months.

Based on data collected from January to September 2021, Kaubun sub-district TBM Cooperative, which manages kepok banana agricultural products, successfully exported 865 tons of bananas. With a turnover of 12,512 billion rupees.

Most shipments took place in August and September, reaching 160 tons for export to Canada. The value of the transaction reached 3,840 billion rupees.

The kepok banana plantation area in Kaubun district has been developed on an area of ​​about 1,700 hectares (ha) managed by the TBM cooperative.

The Kutim Regency government claims that every month farmers in Kaubun district are able to distribute an average of 96.1 tons of Kepok bananas to five countries. Among them are Canada, Malaysia, Pakistan, Greece and Taiwan.