OVERVIEW-Indonesia’s efforts towards achieving strategic foods self-sufficiency

Photo: A vegetable seller holds a pack of chilli for a customer at the morning market in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Beawiharta

JAKARTA – To achieve self-sufficiency in strategic food commodities and reach its goal of becoming the food basket of the world by 2045, Indonesia’s government will continue its efforts to restructure the trade flows of domestic agricultural products, Amran Sulaiman, the minister of agriculture told Salaam Gateway.

The strategic food commodities are rice, corn, soybean, onion, garlic, chili, sugar and beef.

According to Sulaiman, the government wants to break up the oligopolies and monopolies in domestic strategic foods markets and re-structure the monopsonistic sectors, where farmers’ bargaining positions are weakened due to a big buyer controlling a large share of the market. In the prevailing market, middlemen who control access to markets, market information, and capital distort market prices. "It’s important to provide access and market information for farmers, as well as provide financing for them," said Sulaiman.