After Corn Import Ban, Indonesian Feed Millers Group Asks Government Help to Source Corn

Following the Indonesian government’s abrupt ban on corn imports that has created difficulties for corn-related businesses in finding supplies, members of the Indonesian Feed Millers Association (GPMT) have met with the country’s Agriculture Ministry to gain help in sourcing domestic corn supplies.

The Ministry has agreed to facilitate the corn millers’ access to domestic supplies by establishing a task force including government officials, members of the Agriculture Ministry, the Trade Ministry, the State Logistics Agency, and businesses owners, to improve the mapping of the country’s corn producing areas and their proximity to feed millers, easing the domestic logistics costs to the processors.

The task force will also be given the ability to coordinate with other government bodies such as the Transportation Ministry to better organize the transportation of the country’s corn crop from remote growing regions to mills and processing plants.

The ban on corn imports was enacted with the goal of protecting domestic corn prices and driving an increase in domestic production as part of a government plan for the country to become self-sufficient in key crops within the next three years.

This year the Indonesian government expects a 4.1% increase in local corn output, reaching 20.31 million tons – up from a crop of 19.5 million tons last year. As exports topped 400,000 tons this year, the ministry claimed that domestic production was sufficient, but members of GPMT claim that only 22% of domestic production was made available to their industry each year, leaving them to rely on imports. Last year GPMT members imported 3.1 million tons of corn, and so far this year have imported 1.65 million tons.