Andi Amran Sulaiman, Indonesia's Agriculture Minister, says Indonesia is ready to become a rice exporter after Indonesia managed to become self-sufficient in rice in 2016. Last year Indonesia produced a total of 79.17 million of unmilled tons of rice, significantly above the government target that was set at 72 million tons. Although Indonesia is the world's third-largest rice producer the country usually needs to import rice from Vietnam or Thailand to maintain stable prices and meet huge rice demand at home. Rice is the staple food of basically all Indonesian people.

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The Indonesian Rubber Board says Indonesia's rubber production is expected to reach 3.16 million tons in 2016, up 1.61 percent (y/y) from last year's realization. The board said rising output comes on the back of an increase in the size of Indonesia's rubber plantations and an increase in productivity at the existing plantations. Indonesia is the world's second-largest rubber producer (after Thailand) and therefore its output has a major impact on global rubber prices (about 85 percent of Indonesia's rubber production is exported abroad).

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Indonesian Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has a strong suspicion that the "rice mafia" is behind the recent fluctuations in rice supply and prices in Indonesia. Suspicion emerged after new rice supplies suddenly 'flooded' Indonesian markets in February when prices of rice had already risen due to the scarcity of supplies. Sulaiman believes there is a cartel consisting of six big Indonesian rice distributors that deliberately hid rice output after last year's harvest and waited for prices to rise significantly before supplying rice to the markets in order to see higher profits.

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Seperti yang disetujui pada bulan lalu, pada November ini Indonesia akan mulai mengimpor sekitar 1,5 juta ton beras dari Vietnam. Sebelumnya di tahun ini, Indonesia telah mengimpor 60.000 ton beras untuk menstabilkan harga beras karena ada kenaikan harga beras yang menguatirkan, yang Pemerintah tuduhkan terjadi karena mark-up harga oleh para pedagang pasar. Beras adalah makanan pokok untuk penduduk Indonesia, mengimplikasikan bahwa segmen masyarakat miskin menghabiskan porsi yang relatif besar dari pendapatan yang dapat dibelanjakan mereka untuk membeli beras. Ini berarti bahwa inflasi beras dapat menyebabkan kenaikan angka kemiskinan.

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Indonesia's Agriculture Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Denmark for investment into Indonesia's corn and sugar plantations as well as the cattle industry. Based on the words of Indonesian Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman it involves total Danish investment of at least IDR 2 trillion (approx. USD $152 million) for a period of five years. The deal involves the transfer of Danish agricultural technology, while Indonesia's part of the deal is to provide two million hectares of land. Meanwhile, Indonesia also plans to reaffirm its partnership with the UK in the creative economy industry.

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Corn is among the four strategic commodities that receive special attention in the blueprint of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The AEC’s food blueprint aims to enhance food security & sovereignty of corn, rice, soybeans and cassava in the ASEAN region. Indonesia is currently the region’s largest corn producer. However, Indonesian corn consumption continues to outpace domestic corn production, resulting in a deficit. This column provides an overview of Indonesia’s corn sector in the context of the AEC.

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