Thailand is set to receive 5,600 tonnes of shallots from Indonesia, the first shipment in a total order for 9,000 tonnes of the vegetable that is planned for this year.

“In the past, we imported shallots from Thailand, but now we export the commodity to the country,” |said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman when |releasing the trucks that |transported the containers from Brebes in Central Java province |to a seaport.

Brebes produces 18.5 per cent of the country’s shallot output, and 57 per cent of Central Java’s shallot output.

Amran said his ministry was cooperating with state-owned logistics firm Bulog to accelerate the distribution of agricultural commodities both for domestic needs and export.

Citing data from the country’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Amran said in 2014, Indonesia imported 74,903 tonnes of shallots and in 2015, it still imported 17,429 tonnes of the vegetable.

But in 2016, the country started to export 735 tonnes of shallots and in 2017, shallot exports increased to 7,750 tonnes.

He also said that in 2016, Indonesia harvested shallots from 149,600 hectares of agricultural fields with a total production of 1.45 million tonnes, while in 2017, the total production reached 1.47 million tonnes. – The Jakarta Post