Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) hinted at Indonesia’s dependence on wheat imports. Which reaches 11 million tons in one year.

Therefore, Jokowi also urged his subordinates intensively to encourage import substitution and campaign for food consumption to revert to indigenous local products other than rice.

Citing data from the Indonesian Association of Wheat Flour Producers (APTINDO), wheat imports range from 10 to 11 million tonnes per year.

From 10.53 million tons in 2016, then increased to 11.43 million tons in 2017, to 10.96 million tons in 2018, again to 10.06 million tons in 2019, in 2020 it fell back 10.29 million tonnes, and climbed to 11.48 million tonnes in 2021. From January to March 2022, wheat imports are estimated to have reached 2.81 million tonnes, up 4.7% from the same period in 2021.

The wheat is then processed into wheat flour which is the raw material for food products such as instant noodles and bread. The total wheat milling capacity in Indonesia is 13.1 million tons per year, and by 2022 it is expected that there will be 30 flour mills in Indonesia.

So where does Indonesia import wheat from?

Data from Aptindo shows that Indonesia’s wheat requirements come mainly from Australia, Argentina, the United States (US), Canada and Ukraine. The share of imports from these five countries of course changes every year.

year 2016, Indonesia’s main wheat suppliers are Australia, Ukraine, Canada, Argentina and the United States respectively.

year 2017, its composition is Australia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Canada and the United States.

2018Indonesia’s main wheat suppliers are Ukraine, Australia, Canada, the Russian Federation and the United States.

year 2019, the part being Ukraine, Canada, Argentina, United States and Australia.

year 2020,became Ukraine, Argentina, Canada, the USA, then Australia.

While in 2021, the order is Australia, Ukraine, Canada, Argentina and the United States.

In the first quarter of 2022, Indonesia’s main wheat suppliers are Australia with 1.09 million tonnes (38.8%), Argentina supplying 754,000 tonnes (26.8%), Brazil supplying 483,000 tonnes (17. 2%), Canada up to 280,000 tonnes (10%), and India 102,000 tonnes (3.6%).

“Import substitution of goods that we import must inevitably be stopped, so that our foreign currency does not run out to pay for imports. What we still import is 11 million tons of wheat. In Indonesia, we cannot grow wheat, we The mixture is wheat, it can be mixed with cassava, sorghum,” Jokowi said while giving instructions to KADIN, Wednesday (23/8/2022).