JAKARTA: Indonesia's imports of wheat for animal feed could jump by about 36 percent to 3 million tonnes in 2017, an industry association said, if the government pushes forward with efforts to restrict corn imports.
Indonesia has emerged as the world's second-largest wheat importer and its imports of the grain spiked this year after the country imposed tighter rules on corn imports.
Under rules introduced in April, feedmills must import corn via the state procurement agency, Bulog, and imports were capped at 1 million tonnes. This is about a third of the amount the industry had planned to import in 2016, according to the Indonesian Feedmill Association.
"If there's a lack of corn, we have to import wheat," association chairman Desianto Budi Utomo told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday.
Earlier an official at the agriculture ministry said Indonesia hopes to end imports of corn in 2017 as part of a government push for self-sufficiency in foods.
Indonesia's corn imports have jumped on demand for animal feed and reached a record 3.5 million tonnes in 2013/2014, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. This year, feedmills imported around 800,000 tonnes of corn, Utomo said.
In 2015, Indonesia imported only 1,890 tonnes of wheat for animal feed, according to the state statistics agency (BPS), but this was expected to rise to 2.2-2.3 million tonnes in 2016.
Imports of wheat for human consumption are also expected to climb 8 percent to 8 million tonnes this year and rise a further 7 percent in 2017 due to strudy economic growth, the Indonesia Flour Mills Association said this week.
Australia is Indonesia's top wheat supplier, but its market share had slipped from nearly 60 percent in 2015 to around a third as of mid-2016, data from the flour association showed, as imports of wheat for animal feed increased.
Indonesia imports animal feed-grade wheat from Ukraine and Eastern European countries as well as Argentina, and corn mainly from Brazil and Argentina. Wheat for human consumption is imported from Australia, Canada and the United States.
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