Bapanas: Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz Do Not Affect the Supply of 11 National Foodstuffs

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) ensures that geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Middle East, do not interfere with the availability of 11 strategic national staple foods, with safe stock conditions.

The Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Sarwo Edhy, said that the disruption of international trade routes in the region had not yet exerted a significant pressure on national food security.

"The government ensures that the availability of 11 strategic staple foods is still safe and does not experience distortion," said Sarwo when receiving students of the Police Staff and Senior Leadership School (Sespimti Polri) at the Ministry of Agriculture, as stated in Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, April 29.

He said, based on the projection of the food balance sheet, all commodities are in a safe condition. As for commodities that are still met through imports are not from the Middle East region.

"In terms of balance and availability, it is very sufficient. We have not seen any significant impact on the national food supply," he said.

Sarwo explained that until June 2026, 11 strategic staple foods are projected to remain in surplus, including three commodities that still require additional imports.

He ensured that the source of imports came from countries that were not affected by the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, such as soybeans from the United States, buffalo meat from India, cattle from Australia, and garlic from China.

"Thus, the distribution channel does not go through the Strait of Hormuz so that its influence is very small," he said.

Meanwhile, the Deputy for Distribution and Services Statistics of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Ateng Hartono stated that food stability was also reflected in the Price Development Index (IPH) which showed an improving trend.

According to him, in the fourth week of April 2026, the number of provinces that experienced an increase in IPH decreased to 13 provinces, compared to the previous week of 15 provinces.

"The trend has continued to decline since the beginning of April. In the first week, 21 provinces were recorded, then 22 provinces in the second week, down to 15 provinces in the third week, and now 13 provinces," he said.

The decline also occurred at the district/city level. BPS recorded the number of areas that experienced an increase in IPH in the fourth week of April as many as 126 districts/cities, down from 137 areas in the previous week.

"The number has continued to decline since the beginning of April, from 160 areas, then 149, 137, and now 126 areas," said Ateng.

Previously, the Head of Bapanas who is also the Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman stated that Indonesia had achieved food self-sufficiency, with a relatively small import share.

He said that the total imports were around 3.5 million tons compared to the national production of 73 million tons or around 4.8 percent. If compared to the national needs of 68 million tons, the proportion is slightly above 5 percent.

According to him, the maximum limit of imports in the definition of food self-sufficiency refers to the provisions of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) of 10 percent, so Indonesia is still in the category of self-sufficiency.

The total imports consist of soybeans of around 2.6 million tons, garlic of 600 thousand tons, and ruminant meat of 350 thousand tons, while the production of 11 food commodities reaches around 73.7 million tons per year.

The eleven strategic staple food commodities include rice, feed corn, sweet peas, large peppers, chicken meat, chicken eggs, red onions, consumption sugar, soybeans, garlic, as well as beef and buffalo meat.