Jakarta wants direct trade

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 23

Jakarta wants direct trade

By

BRUCE KOHN

in Jakarta

Indonesian traders have begun an effort to step up direct trading with New Zealand because of dissatisfaction with commodity broking transactions through third parties. According to trade officials in Jakarta, efforts to increase Indonesian sales have not proceeded smoothly because New Zealand importers have been buying Indonesian commodities through Third-country brokers. Officials involved with the Indonesian selling mission to New Zealand in April and May said trade representatives for several commodities such as tea and rubber had now been appointed in New Zealand. In the case of rubber the New Zealand ImportExport Corporation had been trade representative for Indonesian rubber to

establish direct trade. In the 1977-78 trading year New Zealand imported about 520 tonnes of Indonesian natural rubber, 5.8 per cent of total rubber imports. Officials said they hoped this trade would show a marked increase this year. Coffee is another big Indonesian export to New Zealand. In 1977-78 New Zealand bought 1043 tonnes, about 25 per cent of coffee imports. New Zealand purchases would continue to rise, they said. Indonesian sales of tea had declined from 11.3 per cent of New Zealand’s imported tea market in 197576 to only 2.1 per cent in 1977-78. Officials said the Im-port-Export Corporation had been appointed New Zealand representative for Indonesian tea sales and “this approach has been taken in order to overcome the role played by brokers at present.’’