JakartaPost-Oct 13, 2022
Indonesian officials have proposed to the Group of 20 a set of possible solutions to a looming global food crisis as geopolitical tensions threaten food and fertilizer supplies worldwide. At a press conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said the G20 was committed to guaranteeing continued food production and making it available for cross-border trade. Syahrul was speaking at the first Joint Finance and Agriculture Ministers Meeting (JFAMM), which brought together top officials from G20 countries as part of the G20 forum, which Indonesia is chairing this year. Data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) show that food, beverage and tobacco prices were up 7.91 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the country as of September, far above the 5 percent the central bank had proclaimed as the maximum acceptable food inflation rate. “All countries are worried about the presence of a food crisis that really needs to be responded to more seriously,” Syahrul said. The minister called on the G20 to increase the production of key food commodities that weighed heavily on inflation, reduce imports through substitution with domestic goods where possible and increase food exports. He said Indonesia was already on track with these policies, which he referred to as a “triple intervention”. State-owned Bank Mandiri agriculture expert Andrian Bagus Santoso noted that the high price of natural gas, a key component in the production of fertilizer, had exacerbated the issue. The higher prices were forcing farmers to cut back on fertilizer, resulting in suboptimal harvests. While he felt the “triple intervention” policy could work in the medium term, he suggested the government sign bilateral trade deals to secure more immediate food supplies, particularly for commodities that needed to be imported. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/10/12/ri-proposes-triple-intervention-to-prevent-global-food-crisis.html
