July 4, 2011
Indonesian corn imports seen over three million tonnes in 2011
Indonesia's corn imports are expected to rise to more than three million tonnes this year, as domestic output falls and global prices head lower, the chairman of the Indonesian Feed Mill Association (GPMT) said on Friday (Jul 1).
Earlier this year, the association had forecast imports at more than two million tonnes, up from 1.5 million tonnes in 2010.
"With the latest situation in the global corn market and lower corn production locally, it is estimated that Indonesian corn imports may be higher than our previous estimate of two million tonnes," Chairman Franciscus Xaverius Sudirman said.
"There is a possibility that our corn imports in 2011 may be over three million tonnes."
US corn futures tumbled for the second day in a row on Friday after a US government report showed corn stocks were much higher than the market had expected and farmers planted the crop on a bigger area than anticipated.
"In the first half alone there had been 1.5 million tonnes of imported corn shipped to Indonesia," Sudirman added. "Corn imports in the second half are higher than in the first half because usually the main corn harvest is in the first half."
A number of corn-producing areas in Indonesia have suffered from failed harvests because of bad weather, while rising animal feed production is boosting corn demand.
"A lower global corn price could become a kind of incentive for the importers to import more corn in 2011," he added. "It is likely that corn importers, who are dominated by feedmillers, may be stimulated to increase their corn imports from the global market."
Indonesia mainly imports corn from the US, Brazil, and Argentina, said Sudirman, adding that Indonesian feedmillers consumed an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of corn in 2011.
On Friday, Indonesia's statistics bureau forecast corn production at 17.39 million tonnes this year, down from 17.93 million forecast earlier this year. Indonesia produced 18.33 million tonnes of corn in 2010.
