Indonesia

Industry Hopeful for U.S.- Indonesia Trade Deal to Expand Red Meat Markets

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:58:53 GMT

With the announcement of the U.S. and Indonesian framework for a trade agreement, more access for U.S. beef and pork could become a reality.

U.S. Meat Export Federation Vice President of Economic Analysis Erin Borror says the U.S. has had limited access to Indonesia. While tariffs are low at 5%, significant non-tariff trade barriers that have also been in place. These include import licensing regime, the commodity balance and facility registration, or plant-by-plant approvals for U.S. beef.

“Those kind of three pillars of market access barriers are how Indonesia has really managed imports for decades at this point,” Borror says.

Removing all non-tariff barriers would open the doors for beef demand in Indonesia.

“The opportunity there is $250 million annually,” Borror says. “That’s a short run estimate. If we remain out of that China market, having Indonesia compete on these short plates, short ribs, chuck short ribs, a number of the offal items, would be tremendous.”

In addition, U.S. pork faces similar trade barriers in Indonesia, a country with 30 million non-Muslims who have shown a growing demand for U.S. pork. Exporters and importers have seen that barrier in action so far this year.

“Trying to manage those pork imports through its variety of commodity balance and import licensing regimes, we’ve already had a doubling in our volumes to Indonesia on the pork side, albeit from a small base, but you see that strong growth,” Borror adds. “African Swine Fever remains rampant kind of in the region.”

She sees potential as Indonesian customers keep asking for more U.S. pork.

Spronk Sees Strong Potential for U.S. Pork in Indonesia

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 15:12:41 GMT

Although Indonesia is a majority Muslim country, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Chair Randy Spronk says there is strong potential for U.S. pork sales.

Current volumes are small, but he says market share for U.S. pork has increased dramatically in 2024 as exports from the European Union to the region have declined. With support from the National Pork Board, Spronk recently traveled to Indonesia to see the market potential firsthand.

“If you really looked at it, they have about 280 million people and I believe 85% are Muslim. If you take the 15% remaining, that’s 35 to 36 million people, and well, that’s Canada. So there’s still a lot of opportunity,” Spronk says. “It’s going to be a long-term growth market in my mind.”

Spronk made the journey with representatives of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, a USMEF member organization that has developed strong relationships providing soy protein in Indonesia. He notes those relationships could provide the stepping stones for developing more pork trade.

“I also think there’s opportunities for more pork products to be able to move into the country, too,” he adds.

The U.S. pork market share in Indonesia has grown from 11.5% in 2023 to 38.5% in 2024, largely due to reduced supply from the EU.

Indonesia Confirms African Swine Fever Outbreak

Tue, 09 May 2023 12:46:30 GMT

Indonesia reported an outbreak of the deadly virus of pigs, African swine fever, on a farm on the Riau Islands near Singapore, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

The outbreak detected on April 1 killed 35,297 pigs within a herd of 285,034 pigs on a farm located on Bulan island. On April 28, the outbreak was confirmed, Indonesian authorities told WOAH.

Although the source of the Indonesian outbreak is still unknown, Reuters reports that veterinarian authorities told WOAH that humans, vehicles, feed, flies and wild boar may have played an important role in the introduction of this disease on the farm.

The investigation began after the disease was detected by the Singapore Food Agency in imported pigs, authorities report.

ASF is a highly contagious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, whose mortality rate can reach 100%. It is not a danger to human health, but it has devastating effects on pig populations and the farming economy. There is currently no effective vaccine against ASF. In addition, the virus is highly resistant in the environment, which means it can survive on clothes, boots, wheels and other materials. It can also survive in various pork products, such as ham, sausages or bacon, WOAH explains.

China first reported ASF in 2018, resulting in the depopulation of millions of pigs and a dramatic decline in meat output in the global markets. China is facing a recent surge in infections in 2023, Reuters reports.

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Extreme Growth Potential with Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for U.S. Red Meat Exports

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 19:43:20 GMT

Trade talks with key trading partners on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework are gearing up, and U.S. Meat Export Federation’s assistant vice president of export services Travis Arp has more details on how this might impact U.S. red meat exports.

“Looking at issues like science-based trade, good regulatory practices and transparency with regulations and things that can really open more opportunities for U.S. exporters in a multiple group of sectors,” Arp says will be on the agenda.

Submitting comments on the ‘resilient trade pillar’ of the framework, USMEF explains the economic impacts of the region’s trades.

“In 2021, Japan and South Korea were the largest volume and value markets for U.S. beef, importing a total of 320,737 and 280,143 metric tons (MT) of U.S. beef, respectively; valued at $2.376 billion and $2.382 billion, respectively,” the comments explained. “2021 U.S. pork exports to Japan and Korea were valued at $1.693 billion and $556 million, respectively, making Japan and Korea the second and fifth largest value markets for U.S. pork.”

USMEF’s comments explained that the value of U.S. beef exports to the region increased by 22% from 2020 to 2021, with a 65% in Indonesia alone. Meanwhile, U.S. pork export values increased by 26%, with a 78% increase in the Philippines alone. These statistics show extreme growth when considering the U.S. market share in these areas are relatively low.

As the economic framework is still under construction, Arp believes the goal is to strengthen trade relations with allies in Asia, seeing the region as an opportunity to improve market access and open these markets to U.S. exporters.

“There’s an opportunity to address some of these systemic barriers to trade,” Arp says. “Gaining more beef access into markets, like Korea, and creating more opportunities for plants to get approved in markets like Malaysia and Indonesia, then this could potentially pose a significant boost to red meat exports in the future.”

Other framework details include promoting science-based trade rules, establishing regionalization agreements in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak, such as African swine fever , and tariffs, quotas and import licenses.

Read USMEF’s full comment detail here .

African Swine Fever Takes a Toll in Southern Indonesia

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 18:59:22 GMT

A resurgence of African swine fever (ASF) in Indonesia’s southern East Nusa Tenggara province has reportedly killed tens of thousands of pigs, reports Mongabay .

Since the disease was discovered in China in August 2018, it has increasingly wreaked havoc in southeast Asia. ASF cases in East Nusa Tenggara province seemed to disappear from this region in late 2020, the article said, but has reared its head again in 2021.

On the island of Flores, famous for its Komodo dragons, Mongabay reports it’s been particularly hard hit with a single district losing up to 40% of its pig herd from ASF. In mid-March 2021, the virus had killed 35,000 pigs since February 2020. Nearby districts reported deaths for the same time period of between 6,000 and nearly 12,000 head.

An official with a local non-profit told Mongabay that he believes the death toll is far higher because many pig farmers haven’t been reporting the deaths of their animals to authorities. Many believe the country needs to do more to prevent the virus from continuing to spread.

ASF is a disease of pigs only and poses no human health risks. To learn more about ASF, visit Farm Journal’s PORK’s ASF page .

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