Artisan spice tea products of Indonesia, which are mixed with the best spices of the archipelago, such as lemon grass, cinnamon, butterfly pea flower, nutmeg, cloves and pandan leaves, have the opportunity to be exported to Chile.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) in Santiago, Chile, offers the tastes of two Indonesian artisan spice tea brands of Bali Brew Me Tea and Made Tea.

In this activity, the ITPC in Santiago invited seven companies from Chile to its office on Friday (Feb. 10), the Indonesian Ministry of Trade said in a written statement as quoted by Indonesia Window on Sunday.

Those companies included Tresmontes Lucchetti S.A, Caso & CIA, Nama Internacional, Erbi, Itochu, and Importadora Altamira.

“ITPC Santiago offers the experience of trying the tastes of Indonesian tea mixed with the country’s excellent spices, such as lemon grass, cinnamon, butterfly pea flower, nutmeg, cloves and pandan leaves. Apart from having unique tastes, spices have a variety of benefits for the body," the head of the ITPC in Santiago, Indah Fajarwati Bachter, explained.

The ITPC Santiago also facilitated online interactive dialogue between artisan spice tea producers Brew Me Tea and Made Tea and seven Chilean companies, Indah said, adding that the two parties could communicate directly and provide insights on the tea products.

"Opportunities are wide open for Indonesian tea products to enter the Chilean market in particular and South America in general. The uniqueness of the herbs and the quality of the tea that Indonesia has, which is different from those of other countries, is one advantage and differentiator from tea products that are already sold in the market," Indah noted.

She pointed out that the ITPC Santiago would continue to facilitate the entry of Indonesian products into the Chilean market, including tea, given that the consumption of these commodities in this South American country continues to increase every year.

Based on data from Euromonitor International, the average per capita consumption of tea each year in Chile is 428 cups. This figure is quite high considering that the people of Argentina who are in second place only consume 95 cups of tea per capita each year.

“Generally, Chileans prefer to consume premium quality tea, especially organic green tea. This provides a great opportunity considering that Indonesia is a major tea exporting country to the world," Indah said.

Based on data from the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, the total value of Indonesia's trade with Chile in 2022 was recorded at 584 million U.S. dollars, up 37.5 percent from the 2021 figure of 424.6 million dollars.

There was a trend of increasing the total value of trade in the last five years (2017–2021) by 7.9 percent.

The volume of Indonesian tea exports to Chile in 2020-2022 was around 200 tons. Meanwhile, Chile imports about 15,000 tons of tea from the world per year.

Reporting by Indonesia Window