Jakarta. Indonesia’s outgoing leader Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said Tuesday that Indonesia's resource nationalism will extend outside of the mining sector as the country mulls banning exports of unprocessed agricultural products like coffee and cocoa.

Resource nationalism has been at the core of Jokowi’s economic policies over the past years.

Jokowi officially banned exports of nickel ores in January 2020 in hopes that it could attract investors to build factories to process the minerals domestically. The move --which the European Union (EU) finds to be controversial-- has bore fruits for the country with the government reporting that nickel-related exports had skyrocketed from just $2 billion before the ban to $34.8 billion from sales of added-value goods.

Speaking at Indonesia’s largest investment forum, Jokowi said that plans were underway to localize other industries in a similar fashion.

Read More: Jokowi Elevates Indonesia and Sets Benchmark for Future Leaders: Enggartiasto

“We need to encourage labor-intensive domestic processing industries, and [extend the resource nationalism] to agriculture, marine, and food sectors. We need to encourage all that so we can bring in the added value to coffee,” Jokowi said at the 2024 BNI Investor Daily Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC).

Jokowi called for an export ban on coffee beans. The same goes for unprocessed pepper, cocoa, and patchouli.

Government estimates showed that Indonesia’s coffee plantations span 1.2 million hectares, while cacao production areas reach 1.4 million hectares. The areas of pepper cultivation hit 172,000 hectares. Patchouli production, however, only stands at around 12,000 hectares.

“If we develop, rejuvenate, and expand these plantations, we can tap into the [downstream] industries, be it food and beverages as well as cosmetics. We have to do everything we can to stop the export [of unprocessed commodities]," Jokowi said.

Jokowi includes seaweed in the government’s domestic processing masterplan, even calling the algae a potential major contributor to the economy.

“In the future, our power lies on seaweed. Our coastlines span 80,000 kilometers. Our people and fishermen live off [the seaweed production]. We need to empower [the fishermen]. ... The seaweed can be turned into organic fertilizers, cosmetics, food or even sustainable aviation fuel. If we carefully plan our strategies, we can create such huge economic boon for the people,” Jokowi told the high-profile conference.

A number of investors are on board with the domestic processing policy. Government data showed that Indonesia had secured Rp 829.9 trillion (nearly $53 billion) in investments from domestic and foreign investors throughout the first half of 2024. About 21.9 percent of the investments were going to the mineral downstream sector, some Rp 80.9 trillion went to nickel smelting.