Ministry of Agriculture and Danantara Collaborate to Implement Prabowo's Major Directives

The Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, has revealed that one of the government’s primary focuses is the implementation of B50 biodiesel, targeted to commence in 2026. He stated that accelerating bioenergy is part of direct instructions from President Prabowo Subianto, to be executed collaboratively across sectors. To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture is partnering with state-owned enterprises to expedite national bioenergy development, from biodiesel to ethanol, as a strategic step towards energy independence. "This is the President’s directive. We, along with state-owned enterprises and Danantara, are collaborating to realise the President’s grand vision," he said in an official statement on Thursday (16/4/2026). "The President’s directive is on biofuel. With B50, we stop importing 5 million tonnes of solar fuel. This is an extraordinary achievement. It will open up job opportunities, reduce poverty, and improve welfare," Amran added. In addition to biodiesel, the government is promoting the acceleration of ethanol development as part of the national energy mix through the E20 mandate. "The latest is ethanol. We are heading towards the E20 mandate. We need 8 million tonnes of ethanol. What does that mean? Eventually, we will be self-sufficient because Brazil is now at E70, E100," he explained. Amran emphasised that if the entire bioenergy ecosystem operates optimally, the impact on the national economy will be significant. "If all this is self-sufficient, God willing, it will create jobs, reduce poverty, lower unemployment, increase welfare, and we will seize the golden Indonesia," he said. On the same occasion, Danantara’s Managing Director of Business 2, Setyanto Hantoro, expressed readiness to support the bioenergy programme implementation, particularly biodiesel and ethanol. "B50 is already on track, now ethanol. Currently, B40 has been fulfilled," Setyanto said. The current B40 implementation has even reduced dependence on energy imports. "And with B40 now, we actually don’t import solar anymore. If B50 comes, we will even export solar. So now B40 has been fulfilled," he stated. To support the E20 mandate, the construction of ethanol production facilities is being accelerated. "Next is for gasoline, for petrol, heading towards E20," he said. "Earlier, with the Minister, we agreed to groundbreaking several; currently, there’s only one factory, the second has been groundbreaking in East Java, followed by four more, making a total of six. That is to meet E20 later," Setyanto added.