The shut down of processing stations of areca nuts in Papua due to the increasing case of COVID-19

Following the shut down of the areca nuts processing stations in Papua province due to the rapid increase of the coronavirus cases in the area in the past two weeks, the local areca nuts exporters are now having difficulties coping with the demand from major importing countries such as India and Sri Lanka. Since 2017, this province has been one of the biggest producing regions of areca nuts in Indonesia with the average annual production capacity of 400 MT. Due to the shutdown, these exporters must now try to source areca nuts from other producing provinces such as North Sumatra and East Java, which is expected to affect the selling price, due to the different labor price and processing price in these aforementioned provinces.