Posted on September, 4, 2018 at 10:50 am
By Eric Schroeder
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Aug. 31 agreed to a new free trade agreement that paves the way for major grain movement between the two countries, according to an article in the Australian Financial Review. Full details of the agreement, which remains subject to domestic approval and passage through Parliament, have yet to be confirmed.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the agreement between the two countries will make Australian farmers the sole overseas suppliers of grain to feed Indonesia’s growing livestock industry. In 2015, Indonesia banned feed grain imports from all nations as part of an effort to develop a domestic supply chain.
The newspaper noted that a new tariff-rate quota starting at 500,000 tonnes a year will apply to Australian feed barley, feed wheat and sorghum.
Indonesia already is Australia’s largest market for milling wheat, accounting for approximately $1.3 billion a year in sales on exports of more than 4 million tonnes.
Australia and Indonesia have been engaged in trade talks for many years, with negotiations beginning in 2010.
Source: WORLD-GRAIN.COM