Agriculture & food
Indonesian tamarind
Indonesian tamarind is the sour culinary type, traded as pressed blocks, seedless paste and concentrate, and used as an acidulant across Asian cooking and food manufacturing. The sweet dessert tamarind of Thailand is a different proposition and Indonesia is not the origin for it.
How it leaves the country.
- Pressed blocks with seed
- The traditional form, cheapest per kilo, and the buyer removes seeds and fibre. Sold on moisture and cleanliness.
- Seedless paste
- Deseeded and pressed, which is labour and which removes weight you were paying freight on. The usual export form for manufacturers.
- Concentrate
- Boiled down to a stable paste for industrial dosing. Longer shelf life and a different specification.
- Whole pods
- Dried in shell, mostly a regional trade rather than an export one.
How it is graded.
No standard grading. What separates lots is how clean the pulp is and how well it was dried, and both follow from the processing rather than from the tree.
- Seed and fibre content
- The single biggest price driver, because it is weight and labour. Specify seedless if that is what you mean, since block tamarind is not.
- Moisture
- Decides storage life and mould risk on a sticky acidic pulp in a humid climate, and it is freight paid on water.
- Colour
- Darkens with age and with heat. It is a record of freshness and of how the paste was handled rather than a quality tier in itself.
- Mould toxins
- A dried fruit pulp in a tropical climate. The panel your market applies belongs on the certificate for the shipped lot.
- Foreign matter
- Sand and shell fragments from ground drying. It is a processing question and it is the recurring complaint.
How it is packed.
- Lined cartons or blocks
- Sticky acidic pulp needs a liner that will not react and will not tear. Packaging failures are common on this product.
- Weight rather than volume
- Dense pulp, so a container reaches its weight limit with space to spare.
- Heat in transit
- A hot container darkens the paste and softens blocks into one mass. Stowage away from the doors is worth specifying.
Where it grows.
East Java
Java
Extensive growing and processing, with the best container access in the country.
East Nusa Tenggara
Nusa Tenggara
Dry eastern islands where the tree grows well and the crop is a smallholder income.
West Nusa Tenggara
Nusa Tenggara
Producing areas feeding the same collectors as the cashew trade.
South Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Growing and processing with export through Makassar.
Who buys this.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Certificate of analysis
- Moisture, microbiology and the mould toxin panel your market requires.
- Phytosanitary certificate
- A plant product, issued against the destination's plant health requirements.1
- HACCP plan
- A processed food, so the plant's documented system is what a manufacturer asks for first.2
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and the preference scheme in force with Indonesia.
Questions buyers ask.
Is this the sweet tamarind I have seen?
No. Sweet tamarind is a dessert fruit and Thailand is the origin for it. Indonesian tamarind is the sour culinary type used as an acidulant, which is a different product with different buyers.
Should I buy block or seedless?
Seedless if you are dosing into a recipe, because the deseeding is labour you would otherwise pay for at home and freight you would otherwise pay on seeds. Block if you process anyway and want the lowest price per kilo of pulp.
Why does my paste arrive darker than the sample?
Heat and time. Tamarind darkens on the voyage and in storage, which is normal rather than a defect. If colour matters commercially, specify a tolerance and control the stowage.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1Badan Karantina Indonesia, the national quarantine agency. Republic of Indonesia. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2General principles of food hygiene and the HACCP system. Codex Alimentarius, FAO and WHO. Checked 3 August 2026.