Agroexport puts potential for Russian grain exports to Indonesia at over $420 mln by 2030
MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - Russia has the potential to export over $420 million worth of grain to Indonesia by 2030 and Russian grain traders have great interest in the Indonesian market, the head of the Agroexport Center, Ilya Ilyushin said during a business mission to Jakarta by Russian grain exporters, the center reported.
"Indonesia is the largest grain importer in Southeast Asia. Russia's grain industry is extremely interested in the Indonesian market and prepared to scale up shipments. By our estimates, the potential for grain exports to Indonesia by 2030 exceeds $420 million," Ilyushin said.
"However, in order to achieve such volumes, it is necessary to build an effective dialog and establish strong contacts, both in intergovernmental cooperation and at the level of businesses," he added.
The executive director of the Grain Exporters and Producers Union (Rusgrain), Ksenia Bolomatova said Indonesia imported 12.4 million tonnes of grain, including 10.4 million tonnes of wheat in the last crop year.
"It is expected that in the 2025/26 agricultural season Indonesia will increase purchases to 14 million tonnes, including 12 million tonnes of wheat, amid growing domestic consumption. Russia achieved significant results last year, delivering more than 1.3 million tonnes of wheat to the Indonesian market, and took a strong position among the country's key suppliers," Bolomatova said.
The main goal of the mission was to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the grain sector and discuss possibilities and conditions for increasing Russian grain shipments with Indonesian partners, she said. "And we achieved it," Bolomatova added.
The CEO of Grain Gates LLC, Ilya Aliyev said Russia made the first shipments of wheat to Indonesia in the 2013/14 crop year.
"According to our internal analysis, just 300,000 tonnes were shipped then. The all-time record was 1.65 million tonnes achieved in the season of 2023/24, and Grain Gates accounted for more than 50% of shipments, 843,000 tonnes. The main channels for exports were deep water ports - Novorossiysk and the Kavkaz port roadstead," Aliyev said.
In the 2024/25 crop year, shipments were only made through Novorossiysk and Russian wheat exports to Indonesia totalled 509,000 tonnes, of which Grain Gates shipped 252,500 tonnes, he said.
"In the 2025/26 season, we're so far the only supplier of Russian wheat to Indonesia. A shipment of Class 4 wheat with 11.5% protein totaling 52,000 tonnes was sent there in September. Other major players on the Russian market could probably resume systematic shipments to this country if interest in Russian wheat grew and regular export shipments recovered," Aliyev said.
The Russian Agriculture Ministry's representative in Indonesia, Artyom Tyurin said trade in agricultural products between the two countries grew by 13% to $1.9 billion in 2024.
"However, the potential for trade and economic cooperation in the agribusiness sector is far greater and currently remains unrealized in full. Possibilities for further growth are far broader. Russian companies are only starting to discover the Indonesia market," Tyurin said.
Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, Sergei Tolchenov said the two countries do not compete with one another in agriculture; they mutually compliment the potential of their national economies. "This is particularly relevant now, when Russia and Indonesia are actively working on ensuring their food security," he said.
Indonesia is preparing to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) at the end of 2025. Under the draft agreement, there are plans to gradually reduce duties on a broad range of goods, including key items in mutual agricultural trade, to zero over several years. Among other things, it obligates Indonesia to reduce its 5% duty on wheat to zero at a rate of one percentage point per year starting as soon as the agreement goes into effect.