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Indonesia’s fuel grade ethanol consumption remains small and localized in 2024, a year after the restart of the ethanol program. The formation of a taskforce for sugarcane expansion is meant to advance Indonesia’s self-sufficiency goals in sugar and bioethanol.

On October 27, 2022, FAS Jakarta published a report summarizing the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Service’s (DGLAHS)’s new requirements for importers to register fresh food of animal origin and obtain the resulting distribution license.

On October 18, 2024, the Government of Indonesia issued Government Regulation No. 42/2024, which granted an extension until, “no later than October 17, 2026” for imported food and beverage products to come into compliance with Indonesia’s mandatory halal certification requirements.

FAS Jakarta and FAS Hanoi teamed up with U.S. Mission to ASEAN to organize a woman farmers’ roadshow bringing two U.S. woman farmers to Vietnam and Indonesia.

This report serves as a follow up to FAS Jakarta’s August 14 and October 3, 2024 reports on Indonesia’s expanded “prior notice” requirements. Exporters must submit a prior notice notification in the Indonesia Quarantine Authority’s (IQA) new online system, on a per shipment basis, for all U.S. commodity shipments departing on or after October 6, 2024.

Indonesia’s growing youth population, middle class, and urbanization offer promising opportunities for U.S. exporters. The retail sector had sales totaling $103 billion in 2023 with increased demand from convenience stores and traditional stores.

On August 14, 2024, FAS Jakarta published a report summarizing an Indonesian Quarantine Agency notification to the WTO which stated that exporters must submit “prior notice” before shipping all agricultural commodities.

Indonesia introduced a new, simplified set of export levies for palm oil products, effective September 21, 2024, amidst decreasing crude palm oil (CPO) exports due to competition from other edible oils. Most of the new levies for palm oil exports will be reduced to between 3 percent to 7.5 percent of the reference price which the Government of Indonesia sets monthly.

In 2022, Indonesia maintained its biodiesel blending mandate at 30 percent and raised its biodiesel allocation volume to a record 10.1 billion liters on expected increased economic activity and mobility following eased pandemic-related restrictions. The export levy that funds the subsidies underwriting the biodiesel mandate program was adjusted to also subsidize cooking oil prices which have surged since late 2021.

Wheat imports for 2021/22 are revised upward to 11.2 million metric tons (MMT) from the previous estimate of 11.0 MMT, reflecting recovering demand for flour-based foods. In line with increased imports, food, seed, and industry (FSI) wheat consumption is also revised up 2.2 percent to 9.1 MMT of wheat equivalent.

In 2021, the total value of all food and beverage retail sales in Indonesia totaled $72 billion, a 12 percent decrease from the previous year due to COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures. Traditional markets still dominate the retail food and beverage sector, accounting for 76 percent of market share, although they continue to lose market share to modern retail stores and e-commerce.