Indonesia is the second-largest pepper (Piper Nigrum L) producer country after Vietnam and followed by India, Brazil, and Malaysia. While Vietnam is the largest black pepper producer, Indonesia is recognized as the largest white pepper-producing country. With the increasing market competition among them in the international market, Indonesia has to increase the market competitiveness of its pepper exports against its competitors. This study aims to analyze the competitiveness of Indonesian pepper exports in the international market by using secondary data from various sources, including from the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture and the International Pepper Community for the year 2018. It focuses on Pepper beans (HS 0900411) and Pepper Powder (HS090412) and uses two methods, namely Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Export Products Dynamic (EPD). The RCA analysis shows that Indonesia has a comparative advantage as a pepper exporter on the international market, both for pepper beans and powder. However, the results of the EPD analysis revealed that such an advantage is declining. For example, the study revealed that the export of pepper beans from Indonesia to the United Stated is in the lost opportunity position, and to Vietnam and Singapore are in the falling star position. A similar situation occurs for pepper powder where Indonesia’s export to Japan, Netherlands, and Germany are all in the falling star position. Such situations are caused by some challenges Indonesian pepper exports face, including the fulfillment of the good agriculture practices (GAP) in the upstream sector and compliance to international standards.

Arabica coffee plantation area is limited, and production is still low while demand increases. The development of Arabica coffee in Indonesia faces many obstacles that threaten its sustainability. The objective of this study is to determine the sustainability status of the Arabica coffee business in West Java and formulate a sustainability strategy. Primary data were obtained through interviews with respondents and key persons from relevant stakeholders from upstream to downstream using a structured questionnaire. The study was conducted in August‒October 2021 in Garut District, West Java. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) was used to assess the sustainability status of the Arabica coffee business in five dimensions, i.e., ecological, economic, social, marketing, and institutional. The results show that the Arabica coffee business in West Java is fairly sustainable, with an average score of 55.65%. The MDS analysis for each dimension reveals that the social dimension has the highest score (62.45%), followed by the ecological dimension (59.01%), the economic dimension (53.00%), the institutional dimension (51.92%), and the marketing dimension (51.87%). This study emphasizes five actions as parts of the sustainability strategy, i.e., adaptation and mitigation of climate change, creative efforts to increase farmers’ income, human resource capacity building, strengthening business partnerships, and strengthening farmer organizations.

Competitiveness is an essential key in market penetration in export destination countries. This study aims to analyze Indonesian coconut oil, refined, bleached and deodorized and desiccated coconut (DC) export performance and its competitiveness in the export market. The competitiveness measurement is seen from comparative and competitive advantages over the two products in each leading export destination market. The analysis method used graphical illustrations and the RCA and EPD covering the period of 2009-2018. The study shows that coconut oil and DC’s export performance increases in all export markets during the analysis period. The Chinese market is a prospective market for coconut oil with the most significant export growth, 10.51% per year, and the largest market share after the USA and South Korea. Meanwhile, the Russian market is the biggest after Germany and Singapore for DC products. The result shows that coconut oil and DC product have comparative competitiveness in all export markets. Coconut oil products are no longer competitive in the South Korean market because their exports are not growing dynamically. The Chinese market is still open, but Indonesia cannot take advantage of this opportunity (lost opportunity). Meantime, DC products have an ideal position in the Russian market and the USA market for coconut oil, namely the rising star. Indonesia gains additional market share with dynamic growth (fast-growing product). Active efforts to find new markets through market diversification and diplomacy while maintaining existing markets can be an option to increase the export of coconut oil and desiccated product.

Empirical evidence shows that rural transformation and structural transformation in Indonesia vary between provinces in both the depth and speed of the change. One province that the local government has claimed to undergo a rapid rural transformation is the province of East Java. This paper aims to analyze the structural and rural transformations in East Java using district-level secondary data for the 2000-2020 period, obtained from East Java Provincial Statistics. Data analysis uses qualitative and descriptive methods. The results show that structural and rural transformations in East Java vary between districts and development clusters. Some districts in East java experienced a rapid decline in the agricultural sector’s contribution in 1990-2020, both in terms of regional gross domestic product and employment, compared to other districts. The results also show that there has been a transformation within the agricultural sector, with the sub-sectors of non-food (commodities) have gradually shifted out the contribution of the food crop subsector. The relatively rapid structural and rural transformation in East Java has succeeded in increasing rural household incomes and reducing poverty incidence in the province. In the future, to continue increasing household income and reduce poverty, the East Java government needs to maintain the momentum of its success through more targeted pro-growth and pro-poor investment policies.

Competitiveness is one of the essential factors in increasing exports of agricultural commodities to export markets. Indonesia is a significant producer and exporter of swiftlet nest products globally. This research aims to study Indonesian edible-nest swiftlet competitiveness and development potential in the primary export destination market in the RCEP (the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) area. The study uses secondary export-import data between countries sourced from UN Comtrade from 2009 to 2019. Analyze competitiveness and potential for product development using the RCA, RSCA, EPD, and IIT methods. The study results show that, comparatively, Indonesian swiftlet nests are competitive in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore markets and are not competitive in Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. The export markets of China and Vietnam are promising because they have reached the ideal position of a rising star. Meanwhile, the Thai market has the potential to be developed because the export market is still growing. The Singapore market also needs to be considered to create high-value processed products because it has relatively strong integration with the Indonesian swallow nest production structure.