In 2007, the government of Indonesia had a target to increase export of processed-food
products by 6.6% of 2007’s export value; it is about US$ 148.67 million. Of this value 63.02%
(US$93.77 million) was targeted coming from Vietnam’s export. How Indonesia should reach this
target?. Utilizing the data provided by the Ministry of Trade, International Trade Center (ITC), and
World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) the study has tried to answer this question. This study
has the objectives: (1) to determine Indonesian opportunity to increase processed food products
in Vietnam market by using trade performance indicator, and (2) to determine the comparative
advantage of the processed-food products which already identified in the first step using the
Revealed Comparative Index (RCA). This study also utilized the primary data collected from the
interview.
This study concluded that Indonesia still had opportunity to increase exports to Vietnam,
particularly on processed food products on which Vietnam does not has competitive advantage.
These products included HS 15 (Animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products, etc), 08
(Edible Fruits, nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons) , HS 03 (Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic
invertebrates nes), HS 09 (Coffee, tea, maté and Spices), 24 HS (Tobacco and manufactured
tobacco substitutes) and HS 21 (Miscellaneous edible preparations). However, this opportunity
was even bigger if Indonesia can improve its competitiveness and products value added. It can
be done by enhancing the products packaging.
Key words: processed food, export increasing,market opportunity
Buletin Ilmiah Perdagangan, Vol. 4 No.1, Juli 2010