What is the volume of Indonesia's soybean imports?

Indonesia's steadily increasing soybean consumption, outpacing domestic production growth, has forced the government to continuously import this food commodity. The weakening Indonesian Rupiah, reaching Rp 14,800 per US dollar, can impact domestic soybean prices. This is because more than half of Indonesia's soybean needs are met through imports.

Soybean imports have increased year after year. Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) shows that soybean imports from 2013-2017 increased, as seen in the graph below. For the January-June 2018 period, soybean imports reached 1.17 million tons, or 43.7% of the total imports from the previous year.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture's Center for Data and Information Technology (Pusdatin) recorded national soybean consumption in 2016 at 2.85 million tons, while production was only 860,000 tons. This resulted in a soybean deficit of 1.99 million tons. Based on projections, soybean consumption in 2018 reached 3.05 million tons, while production only reached 864,000 tons, resulting in a deficit of 2.19 million tons. The soybean deficit is projected to further increase to 2.24 million tons in 2021.