Five Countries Request Fertiliser from Indonesia; Prabowo: We Have a Great Minister of Agriculture

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President Prabowo Subianto has praised Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman and the Ministry of Agriculture for their performance in ensuring abundant national fertiliser stocks.

Currently, five countries have requested fertiliser supplies from Indonesia.

“Australia has asked us to supply 500,000 tonnes of urea. The Philippines, India, Bangladesh, and Brazil have also made requests,” Prabowo said, as quoted by Kompas.com on Saturday (16/5/2026).

Prabowo praised Minister Amran for achieving food self-sufficiency.

“Imagine if we had not achieved food self-sufficiency, if we had not quickly resolved the agricultural issues. Thank you to all parties involved; fortunately, we have a great Minister of Agriculture. He is indeed a son of a farmer,” he said.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz would make this commodity very valuable.

“Even now, it has become clear that many countries are struggling and panicking due to the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Twenty per cent of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which means that fertiliser is also affected because much of it comes from oil and gas,” he explained.

This subsidised fertiliser is for Indonesian farmers.

“At a time when global geopolitics are heating up, Indonesia has managed to reduce fertiliser prices by 20 per cent. This subsidised fertiliser is for Indonesian farmers,” Amran said, as quoted by Antara on Thursday (14/5/2026).

In addition to exports, the volume of fertiliser will be increased by 700,000 tonnes to expand access for farmers to subsidised fertiliser.

“The volume of fertiliser is increasing. This is a source of happiness for Indonesia’s 160 million farmers and 115 million rice farmers (among them),” Amran said.