The FT reports on friction over rising soyabean prices in Indonesia this morning, in what it’s calling “the biggest food-related protests since last year’s Mexican tortilla crisis”:
Indonesia was yesterday forced to take emergency action to calm street protests over record soyabean prices triggered by US farmers reducing the crop to grow more corn for biofuel. Rising Chinese demand for soyabeans and bad harvests in Argentina and Brazil have also contributed to the jump…
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, was forced to announce measures to boost local soyabean supply. The move came a day after 10,000 people took to the streets in Jakarta to complain about the rising cost of one of the country’s staple foods. The government had already responded to the protests by lifting import controls on a commodity that hit an all-time global high of $13.20 a bushel this week, an increase of almost 90 per cent on last year’s level. Indonesian prices have risen even higher. Henry Saragih, the head of the Indonesian farmers’ union, warned: “I think the social situation with soyabeans will probably get worse before it gets better.”
Indonesia, which imports two-thirds of its soyabeans, has suffered from the impact of rising shipping costs and the long-term neglect of its agriculture sector. Meanwhile, many Indonesian farmers have switched to corn cultivation and other more lucrative crops.
Incidentally, the FT’s coverage of the food prices issue continues to be streets ahead of any other international news outlet: the only other newspapers even to cover the protests in Jakarta were local, if Google News is to be believed. This is entirely consistent with other recent food stories. Accept no substitute…
