TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman inaugurated today the country’s export of corn of 6.7 thousand tons to the Philippines from the total projected amount of 60 thousand tons.
“We have successfully turned the tide this year. We used to import 3.6 million tons annually, but now we are exporting. This is remarkable," Amran said after kicking of the corn export at Soekarno-Hatta Port in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Friday, March 9, 2018.
The minister said this achievement was attributable to the hard work of farmers, stakeholders, and the government’s food self-sufficiency program dubbed Upaya Khusus (Upsus) Swasembada Pangan on rice, corn, and soy.
“If we didn’t do this, perhaps at this moment we should be importing four to five million tons of corn, which totaled around Rp12 trillion,” Amran said.
In 2018, the agriculture ministry projected to export 300 thousand tons of corn, with two potential export countries being Malaysia and the Philippines.
“The Philippines needs a thousand tons of corn annually, and Malaysia three thousand tons. If we can reach this, it will be worth around Rp13 trillion, thus our farmers will prosper,” he said.
Amran said the government had exported 57 thousand tons of corn to the Philippines in the year’s beginning.
ANTARA
