Indonesia is likely to import larger volumes of wheat in 2024 compared to 10.87 million metric tons shipped last year, driven by higher demand for flour and animal feed, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.
"There will be growth in consumption for flour and feed with assumption of normal conditions," Franciscus Welirang, Chairman of Indonesian Flour Producers Association, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Jakarta.
Indonesia is the world's third-largest wheat importer, buying largely from Australia, Canada, U.S. and the Black Sea region.
Welirang said the country's flour consumption this year is expected to rise by 5% from 2023.
Meanwhile, Indonesian grain buyers are boosting imports of lower quality wheat, as a decline in corn output last year following a severe drought linked to an El Nino weather pattern tightened the country's animal feed supplies.
Imports from the Black Sea region will largely depend on the cost, he said, amid higher risk of shipping commodities from the Red Sea.
Ships carrying grains and other commodities are being diverted from the Suez Canal to sailings around the Cape of Good Hope on concerns about attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
"There is high risk in transporting through Red Sea," he said. "It will have to go down south, so it will take longer time, and higher freight."
