Prabowo: Indonesia Now Respected by the World for Achieving Food Self-Sufficiency
President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, has emphasised that Indonesia is now increasingly respected by many countries for successfully achieving food self-sufficiency. Prabowo made this statement during his inspection of the Merah Putih Fishermen’s Village (KNMP) in Gorontalo on Saturday, 9 May 2026.
In his address, Prabowo highlighted Indonesia’s success in meeting the needs of strategic food items, particularly rice and maize, without relying on imports since last year.
“We are highly respected because we have now achieved food self-sufficiency, rice self-sufficiency, maize self-sufficiency, and many others; we no longer need to import food from abroad,” said Prabowo.
Last year, Indonesia successfully achieved rice self-sufficiency after national production reached 34.71 million tonnes, surpassing domestic needs of 31 million tonnes. This achievement means Indonesia no longer needs to import rice throughout 2025.
Meanwhile, based on the Food Balance Projection for June 2026 released by the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Indonesia is projected to achieve self-sufficiency in eight strategic food commodities, namely rice, maize, consumer sugar, large chillies, bird’s eye chillies, chicken meat, chicken eggs, and shallots.
In addition to highlighting strategic food security, Prabowo also assessed that Indonesia needs to strengthen animal protein resilience, especially fish, in line with the increasing global need for protein.
Therefore, he stated that the government is ready to make massive investments in the marine economic sector, or blue economy, to optimise the national marine and fisheries potential.
“The world now greatly needs fish protein, for that reason, the government I lead will massively develop fisheries and marine sectors,” he added.
Furthermore, Prabowo emphasised that the development of the marine and fisheries sector will continue to be a focus of the government to create more equitable welfare for communities in various regions.
“We are on the right path; our people must prosper. I want our fishermen to prosper; I want them to smile every day because their income is good,” he concluded.