The International Coconut Community (ICC) takes part as an exhibitor in the 2nd Asian Agriculture and Food Forum (ASAFF) 2020 held at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Indonesia from 12 – 14 March 2020. The event is organized by the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI). President Joko Widodo officially opened the event which coincides with HKTI’s national congress. In his opening remark, the president said transforming the agricultural sector in the country is not easy without changes in agricultural management and therefore agricultural development policies and programs must be carried out from upstream to downstream in order to make a greater contribution to economic development and community’s welfare.
ICC Executive Director Dr. Jelfina C. Alouw said ICC’s participation in the 2nd ASAFF as part of the commitment to support agriculture and HKTI’s program, disseminate information for sustainable coconut development to meet the needs of member countries, promote efforts to expand and diversify trade of coconut products, support market promotion activities including campaign on the health benefits of coconut to increase domestic demand, utilization and export, and to build networking with all coconut stakeholders. Furthermore, ICC use of the occasion to disseminate one of ICC’s program, The 49th Cocotech Conference & Exhibition which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 7 – 11 September.
ICC establishes a standard booth located at the international section of the venue alongside the embassies of India, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the association of Persian Merchants in Indonesia. Mariana Susanthi from the Philippine Trade and Investment Center said that the Philippine government intends to help Philippine agriculture and food companies establish footprint in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Mr. David Surono, the Director of PT Barco said his participation in ASAFF is to strengthen relation with coconut farmers who had supplied coconut to his companies. Established in 1950 PT Barco is a major coconut oil producers in Indonesia.
Many visitors including private and government sectors, university students, farmers, and coconut associations as well as people from different provinces and countries were interested to find coconut-related information in ICC’s booth. Start-up companies were interested in ICC’s publication “Directory of Traders and Equipment Manufacturers” as they said to be used to expand their businesses to foreign markets while university students were interested in coconut statistics provided via interactive touch screen. Some universities were also interested in writing a thesis about coconut. Dr. Jelfina is delighted that ICC’s participation in ASAFF has benefited the stakeholders.