Loksado's cinnamon business is getting excited

Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Community business in Loksado, Meratus Mountains area in South Hulu Sungai (HSS), where most of the population is cinnamon farmers, has recently become more exciting as the price continues to improve.

The price of cinnamon produced by the local people of Loksado, Meratus Mountains, South Kalimantan, is considered to prosper, which makes people excited about cinnamon gardening widely.

Kalsel.antaranews.com reporter who was in Loksado on Sunday witnessed many residents doing cinnamon business. They were seen working to clean cinnamon bark at their porch, then dried them in the sun, after dried they tied them, and ready to be sold.

Some residents said that the cinnamon price has recently getting better. Good quality reaches Rp70,000 per kg. That's the high price in the cinnamon business in Meratus Mountains area.

According to them, selling cinnamon is very easy, because buyers or collectors come to their homes, then take them to Lima Market Banjarmasin, to be then delivered to other cities.

Cinnamon price fluctuates, it was formerly only Rp16,000 per kg, then it went up and down reached Rp35,000 before it went up to Rp60,000. Lately, it is quite high at Rp70,000 per kg.

Cinnamon for the people of Loksado is a hereditary business. They grow the plants in the mountains. It takes six-year for the plant to produce, but the ideal is ten years because the three is large enough that it produces quite a lot of cinnamon.

However, the land is increasingly limited, so the planting is getting deeper into the interior, with half-day walk from their house. Even though far away, they keep on cultivating, because they usually open fields by planting buyung type mountain rice. After that they plant cinnamon,

Now it is not only cinnamon that its price has improved but also candlenut and rubber, that they also planted from generation to generation. The price of peeled candlenut is Rp35,000 per kg, while rubber Rp10,000 per kg.