PM Albanese Appreciates Prabowo for Helping Supply Australian Fertilizer

JAKARTA - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his appreciation to President Prabowo Subianto for helping ensure the security of urea fertilizer supplies for Australia amid the impact of global geopolitical conflicts.

The Australian Prime Minister, through the X platform, stated that he had spoken via telephone with President Prabowo on Tuesday afternoon (21/4) to discuss the conflict in the Middle East and its impact on the region, including in terms of commodity supply.

"I am grateful to President Prabowo for helping secure additional fertilizer for Australia," Albanese said in his statement, Wednesday, April 22, as reported by ANTARA.

Albanese said Australia and Indonesia always work together to ensure the sustainability of the supply of commodities that are important for both countries.

In addition to the issue of commodity supplies, the Australian Prime Minister said he also discussed efforts to increase energy supply chain resilience for both countries with President Prabowo.

"Strong relations in our region are more important than ever, and our two countries are the closest friends to each other," Albanese said.

According to Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Tuesday, President Prabowo and PM Albanese discussed the approval of the export of Indonesian-made urea fertilizer to Australia of 250,000 tons in the initial stage of their discussion on Tuesday.

He said the decision of Indonesia to approve the export of fertilizer was appreciated by the Australian Prime Minister, which he conveyed in the telephone call.

Apart from Australia, the Indonesian government is also planning to export urea fertilizer to a number of other countries such as India, the Philippines, Thailand and Brazil.

"The total commitment to export urea fertilizer, which reaches approximately one million tons, is part of efforts to expand the global market for national fertilizer products," said the Setkab.

Based on data from the Minister of Agriculture, the total national urea production was recorded at 7.8 million tons, while domestic demand was around 6.3 million tons.

With the production gap, he said, the government assessed that exports could still be carried out without disrupting the availability of fertilizer in the country.

"This step is expected to maintain the resilience of domestic supply while strengthening Indonesia's contribution to the global market," said Teddy.