Fatimah Ritonga; Diyan Mentari Siregar; Nike Ardena Br Ginting; Rahmad Azhari Tampubolon; Hendra Cipta
This study aims to analyze the fluctuations in chili production in Kabanjahe District, Karo Regency, which affect market price instability and uncertain supply. One approach applied in this study is the Single Exponential Smoothing (SES) method to forecast chili production. SES was chosen for its simplicity, ease of implementation, and its ability to generate accurate predictions even when the data lacks significant seasonal patterns. The data used is secondary data on chili production obtained from official publications by the Karo Regency BPS for the period of 2020–2024. The analysis results show that a smoothing parameter (α) of 0.8 produced the lowest Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 3.08%. These findings indicate that applying a higher α makes the model more responsive to recent data changes, thus yielding more accurate forecasts. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the SES method in forecasting chili production in areas with significant seasonal fluctuations.