1. Seed Money Project Indonesia Banana
Opportunities at Ambon, Moluccas
December 2016,
Ernst Woltering, Esther Hogeveen

2. Agenda Project outline Bananas on Ambon Other developments on Ambon
Opportunities/Business case
Next steps
Ambon
Seram

3. Project outline
Aim: To investigate the potential of a new supply chain of Organic Non- Cavendish bananas from Ambon (South Moluccas) to Europe
How?
Pre-study by Pattimura University
Visit Ambon by Wageningen UR + Agrofair
What?
Information on present genotypes + characteristics and information on production area/ nr of farmers/production volumes
Organization of current supply chains + bottlenecks to professionalize
Possible business case + roadmap

4. Partners in the project
AgroFair, Barendrecht
Dept. agriculture, Dutch ambassy, Jakarta
FairTaste, Barendrecht
VDH products, Roden
Cooling Service Holland, Zoltstede
Passina Products, Breda
Pattimura University, Ambon
Wageningen Food & Biobased Research

5. Background: problems Cavendish diseases
Panama disease TR4:
Black Sigatoka
sigatoka.htm

6. Bananas in Ambon Many different types of dessert bananas: Small types
High vitamin contents (medicinal value)
Local market production
Ambon: mostly from gardens, some small plantations
Ceram: more (small) plantations than Ambon
No current export of bananas from Moluccan Islands

7. 17 types of Bananas at Ambon market
Listed with basic characteristics (length, colour, nr, availability, demand, taste)

8. Other developments Ambon/Moluccas
Plans for new international port (fish)
Coolport Rotterdam
Export spices (nutmeg, mace) to NL
PT Ollop
Plan to set up 500 ha production + processing spices/ fruit/ vegetables at Ambon possibly for export
By Frits Blessing + Chair Ollong (PT Ollop)
Various MOU’s Netherlands – Indonesia

9. Opportunities
Local production + processing a selected banana with high provitamin A content (Musa fehi) as pasteurized puree for export
Increase + professionalize local production of various special type bananas and other crops, leading to employment, food security at islands, less dependence on import, health
 Training + production + quality increase + logistics  export
3. Grow specific bananas of interest in other islands/countries for export (taking care of Nagoya protocol)

11. Who can benefit in the Netherlands?
Fresh product traders
Food industry (e.g. juices, babyfood)
Cosmetic industry
Agronomic consultancy
Technology providers
How big are the opportunities?
Niche markets only

12. Example: puree Puree market: Food + Cosmetics
Currently only Cavendish puree
Potential for high nutritional value product
Estimations prices
Current market value: Cavendish puree
~ € 1.40 / kg puree
Current market price: M. fehi
~ € / kg banana
~ € 1.50 / kg puree?
Expected market value: M. fehi
€ / kg puree?
Expected market size ?

13. Product characteristics M. fehi
Weight/bunch/tree
~10-15 kg
Nr of pieces per tree
25-40
Weight per banana finger
~200 grams
Time to flower
6-12 months
Ripening time till harvest
3-4 months
Needs for 1000 kg puree = 2000 kg fresh
Minimum # of trees needed (at same time producing)
~200 trees
These amount of trees probably not present on Ambon  maybe Seram
Normal monocrop Cavendish plantation 1250 trees/hectare

14. Recommendations / Next steps
Local M. fehi puree:
Study on presence/growing/ production/ nutritional/ post-harvest/ disease characteristics (Ambon +Seram)
Pilot to grow more trees and produce puree
Validation business case
Fresh produce trade and cold storage facilities  upscale of production needed.
Local initiatives
Grow most interesting bananas in different island/countries
Agrofair+ Pattimura+ Frits Blessing/Chair Ollong (PT Ollop)+ Wageningen University  look for joint program opportunities.
Initiative Frits Blessing/Chair Ollong most concrete.
Agronomic support is needed. Government support is needed.

15. Thank you for your attention