Early 2025, RI Has Imported Sugar, Beef, and Wheat

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – At the beginning of 2025, Indonesia has imported industrial raw sugar, beef, and wheat. As of January 2025, the total imports of sugar amounted to 308,780 tons, beef 18,220 tons, and wheat and meslin 728,020 tons.

Acting Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, Monday (17/2/2025), stated that the majority of the 308,780 tons of sugar imports were to meet the needs of industrial raw materials. The total value of the imports reached 162.8 million US dollars.

"The majority of the sugar was imported from Thailand, amounting to 287,530 tons or 93.12 percent of the total sugar import volume in January 2025," he said in a press conference on Export and Import Performance in January 2025 held in a hybrid format in Jakarta.

The majority of the sugar imports, amounting to 308,780 tons, are to meet the needs of industrial raw materials. The total value of the imports reached 162.8 million US dollars.

Indonesia, continued Amalia, also imported 18,220 tons of beef worth 61.2 million US dollars. The imports came from India (73.53 percent), Australia (15.74 percent), Brazil (8.95 percent), and several other countries (1.77 percent).

In addition, in January 2025, Indonesia also imported 728,020 tons of wheat and meslin worth 208.4 million US dollars. The countries of origin for these imports include Australia (38.73 percent), Canada (26.81 percent), and Argentina (11.99 percent).

"The import of these three commodities is to meet the raw material needs of the food industry, especially during Ramadhan-Lebaran 2025," he said.

This year, the government decided to import 200,000 tons of raw sugar to strengthen the government's sugar reserves. The government, through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag), has also issued import approvals for 117,000 tons of buffalo and beef.

The beef imports are part of the import quota of 280,000 tons of beef and buffalo meat in 2025. Of that amount, 100,000 tons will be buffalo meat and 180,000 tons will be beef.

To meet the need for garlic, the Ministry of Trade has also issued an import permit for 117,612 tons of garlic from the total import quota for this commodity in 2025 of 550,000 tons.

However, as of the second week of February 2025, the realization of garlic imports was still zero percent. Meanwhile, garlic stocks in early 2025 were 53,484 tons.

Garlic imports were also one of the things discussed in the Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting held by the Ministry of Home Affairs in a hybrid manner on Monday (2/17/2025). The price of the commodity tends to be stable and high ahead of Ramadan 2024.

The realization of garlic imports for the beginning of this year is also questionable. This is considering that the increase in garlic prices in the last few years has been triggered by the slow realization of imports (Kompas, 2/17/2024).

"We have issued import approvals for garlic importers. However, until now, the realization is still zero. Later we will try to remind the applicants for import permits," said the Expert Staff of the Minister of Trade for Business Climate and Market Security Tommy Andana.

Meanwhile, the Director of National Food and Nutrition Alertness of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Nita Yulianis said that the availability of 12 strategic food commodities for Ramadhan-Lebaran 2025 is very safe. This is based on the National Food Balance Projection for January-December 2025 which was updated in January 2025.

"There are only three strategic commodities that need to be imported, namely buffalo and beef, garlic, and soybeans," he said.

Referring to the National Food Balance Projection for January-December 2025, the plan to import soybeans this year is 2.42 million tons. The plan to import beef and buffalo, as well as garlic, is 192,531 tons and 593,966 tons, respectively.

Nita also asked that every food stakeholder work together to maintain the national food balance. Bapanas even recommended that every regional government create a food balance projection. This is important to predict food commodities that require provision from other regions.

"The regional food balance can be the basis for efforts to facilitate food distribution as well as to identify food surpluses and deficits in each region," he said.