Indonesia Explores Egg Exports to Singapore and Neighbours Amid Price Slump
The Ministry of Trade is opening up opportunities for the export of Indonesian chicken eggs to Singapore and several ASEAN countries amid a slump in prices at the domestic farm level. The government views the opening of export markets as a potential solution to absorb the excess supply while lifting egg prices, which are currently below the government’s purchase reference price at the producer level.
Nawandaru Dwi Putra, Director of Domestic Market Development at the Ministry of Trade, stated that in addition to bridging the distribution of eggs from surplus regions to areas still experiencing high prices, the government is also working to expand overseas markets. “We have also made efforts regarding the potential for marketing through exports of chicken egg commodities to several ASEAN countries, namely Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore,” Nawandaru said during a Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday.
According to him, the most open export opportunity currently comes from Singapore. However, businesses and farmers must still meet various requirements set by the destination country. “Currently, there is potential for this chicken egg commodity to be open for export to Singapore. However, the challenge is related to the readiness and fulfilment of the requirements set by the destination countries,” he said. The Ministry of Trade therefore hopes for support from other ministries and agencies to assist farmers in meeting export standards.
“We hope for support from ministries and agencies as upstream sector supervisors to provide assistance, because we are supported by our trade representatives,” he said. “Our trade representatives, especially in the ASEAN region, have provided information and we need to welcome these efforts to prepare domestic farmers to meet the provisions or requirements set by these countries, and ultimately help open market access and market them to ASEAN countries,” Nawandaru continued.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Trade is also continuing efforts to stabilise the price of chicken eggs in the domestic market. One method is by connecting production centres with regions where selling prices are still above the consumer reference price. “Currently, we are trying to bridge with several regions, especially for chicken egg commodities. We are trying to bridge to increase marketing access for independent farmers in chicken egg production centres,” he said.
He explained that the government is ready to facilitate cooperation between local governments, trade offices, agricultural offices, food security offices, and farmer associations and cooperatives so that the distribution of eggs from surplus areas can flow to regions still experiencing high prices. “We are trying to bridge with regions where egg prices are currently recorded above the reference price. We are ready to communicate. In principle, we are ready to bridge, the goal is to establish supply cooperation from production centres, to help independent farmers who are currently experiencing a significant price drop below the reference price at the producer level,” Nawandaru stated.
He added that coordination with local governments will continue to be carried out to expand marketing access for chicken eggs so that prices at the farm level can recover. Based on the Ministry of Trade’s Market and Basic Needs Monitoring System, the price of chicken eggs today stands at Rp25,985 per kg, a decrease of 0.42% compared to the price last week of Rp26,094 per kg.