March 9, 2004

Indonesian Soybean Imports To Fall By 20%

Indonesia will import 20% less, or to 1.36 million tons, soymeal this year as a result of the bird flu outbreak in the country.

The outbreak of the bird flu that has killed around 4.7 million chickens in the country in the past several months resulted in a sharp fall in poultry feed requirement as demand for chicken meat has dropped.

Consumers began to fear transmission of the virus to human, the newspaper Kompas said.

The paper quoted a survey as saying that after the recent announcement by the government confirming that bird flu was the culprit causing the death of millions of chickens in the country, demand for soybean meal fell by 50 per cent.

Indonesia imports soybean meal from Brazil the United States, Argentina and China.