The East Java Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) received a visit from the Guatemalan Ambassador to Indonesia, Maynor Jacobo Cuyun Salguero at Graha Kadin Jatim, (2/10/2024). Present on the occasion, Kadin East Java Chairman Kadin Adik Dwi Putranto, Deputy Chairman of the East Java Kadin for Foreign Trade and Promotion Prof. Tommy Kayhatu, representatives from a number of city district Kadin and dozens of business members of the East Java Kadin.

Maynor Jacobo Cuyun Salguero revealed that his presence at Kadin Jatim was to strengthen good relations between Guatemala and East Java and continue to look for opportunities to increase trade between East Java and Guatemala.

‘We have a very good relationship but we want to strengthen it even better to find more opportunities for Guatemalan products in the Indonesian market and also to find more opportunities for Indonesian products in the Guatemalan market,’ Maynor said.

Some of the Guatemalan products that are considered potential to be marketed in Indonesia include manufacturing, agriculture and plantation products such as cocoa, sugar, coffee, bananas and processed foods. In addition, there are also textile products and cosmetics.

While products from Indonesia that are needed in Guatemala include textile products, motorbike parts, some agricultural products, oil and many more. ‘Both sides have several products that we can cooperate with for export and import markets,’ he said.

Besides wanting to enlarge trade cooperation, the Guatemalan Ambassador also wants to attract investors from East Java who want to invest in Guatemala. According to him, Guatemala is geographically very strategically located in Central America. Travelling to Los Angles, San Francisco and also to Washington DC only takes about 2 hours. Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America and the 11th most populous country in the Americas.

‘I know Indonesia has very good potential, is a big country and very important for Guatemala. This is the first step to continue the very good relationship between the two countries is the main reason I am here to strengthen the relationship, to seek trade and investment opportunities for my country Guatemala,’ he said.

Responding to this desire, Adik Dwi Putranto expressed his enthusiasm. Moreover, so far Guatemala has become one of Indonesia's trading partners. ‘Our trade balance with Guatemala is still in surplus,’ said Adik.

As Guatemala is renowned for its expertise in banana cultivation, Adik hopes that there will be co-operation with Indonesia, especially East Java in terms of banana cultivation. ‘We need the technology on how to cultivate bananas so that the production and quality of the bananas produced are very good. We ask for Guatemalan technology to be brought to Indonesia,’ said Adik.

He further said that the investment potential in East Java is very high, therefore Adik hopes that Guatemala will also want to enter East Java. ‘The same applies to trade. We need to increase it. And after this meeting there is a plan to hold business matching between East Java entrepreneurs and Guatemalan entrepreneurs. We will guard this,’ said Adik.

On the same occasion Prof Tommy Kayhatu revealed that so far the trade relations between East Java and Guatemala have been good. The balance of trade between East Java and Guatemala during the period 2020-2024 is always in surplus.

He further said that the value of East Java's exports to Guatemala has always fluctuated with an average growth trend of 5.38% per year. The share of East Java's total exports averaged 0.03% per year.

In 2020, the East Java trade surplus with Guatemala reached US$ 5.41 million. With details of export realisation reaching US$ 5.61 million while total imports throughout 2020 reached US$ 0.20 million. In the year. 2023, total exports reached US$ 9.26 million while imports were only US$ 0.05 million. ‘This means that our surplus in 2023 will reach US$ 9.21 million per year,’ explained Tommy.

‘East Java's non-oil and gas commodities exported to Guatemala include paper/cartons; various chemical products; objects of stone, plaster, and cement; coffee, tea, spices; musical instruments; objects of iron and steel; organic chemicals and footwear,’ he said.

As one of East Java's export destination countries, Guatemala is positioned at 97th in 2020, in 2021 at 88th, in 2022 at 90th, in 2023 at 83rd, 56y6 in the January - March period in 2024 at 10th,.

While imports from Guatemala tend to decline with an average growth trend of around (4.94%) per year. Meanwhile, the average share of total non-oil and gas imports of East Java is 0.001% per year.

The import commodities of East Java from Guatemala are coffee, tea, spices; knitted goods and various processed foods. As one of the countries of origin of imports to East Java, Guatemala in 2020 is ranked 114th, in 2021 it is 108th, in 2022 it is 108th, in 2023 it is 129th, while in the January - March period in 2024 it is 114th.