July 12, 2005
 

US aims to dominate Indonesian wheat market again
 

After losing the Indonesian wheat grains market to Australia for the past 25 years, US now plans to regain its lost ground, said US Wheat Associates vice president Mark Samson on Jun 11. 

The US had dominated more than half of the Indonesian market in the 1980's and will now compete based on its wheat's nutritional value and prices-which is US$10 cheaper a tonne than Australian grains.

However, he admitted that the price difference might only be attractive to new wheat flour producers such as PT Asia Raya, PT Purnomo Sejati, and PT Kwala.

Indonesian wheat flour producers have also indicated that the cheaper US wheat grain price is a piece of news that they welcome.

Indonesia has in the past 5 years imported 4.5 million tonnes of wheat grain annually. 60 percent of the market is captured by Australia, with the rest of the market supplied by the US, Canada, China, India, and the United Arab Emirates.