July 24, 2010

Indonesian corn imports seen to reach 1.3 million tonnes

Indonesia's corn imports this year are predicted to reach 1.3 million tonnes with domestic production falling short of expectation, consumers said.

Imports so far this year have already reached around 700,000 tonnes, said Don Utoyo, chairman of the Indonesian Poultry Community Forum.

Corn grains are used mainly as feedstock for animal feed especially poultry feed in the country. Quality is not the factor necessitating corn imports by animal feed producers but the scarcity of supply, Don noted.

He said some of corn plantations have been used to grow sugarcane resulting in shrinking production of corn.

Meanwhile, Indonesia will import 800,000 tonnes of corn in 2010 to fulfil domestic needs. The Central Bureau of Statistic predicted that national corn production would only be 18.02 million tonnes, or 1.78 million tonnes less than production target this year.