Prabowo Proud as Indonesia Becomes World's First Country to Implement B50 Biodiesel

President Prabowo Subianto has expressed pride that Indonesia has become the first country in the world to implement B50 biodiesel. He made the statement during the launch of the B50 programme at the KM 57 Rest Area on the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road in Karawang on Thursday, 9 July 2026. “With the launch of this programme, Indonesia officially becomes the first country in the world to implement the B50 biodiesel mandate,” said Prabowo. The Head of State stated that this achievement was not merely a technological feat. More than that, the launch of B50 proves that Indonesia is capable of utilising its natural wealth for the benefit of the people. “This is a very important milestone on the journey towards energy independence,” he said. He further explained that there are several factors determining the survival of a nation. The first factor is the ability to produce food for the people. The second is possessing energy and energy sources that do not depend on other countries. The third is the ability to have water resources. “Food, energy, water. This is proclaimed by the UN and almost all experts on human civilisation are aware and understand that without these three things, a nation will find it difficult to survive, difficult to be sovereign, difficult to be prosperous,” said Prabowo. Therefore, Prabowo is grateful that Indonesia has achieved food self-sufficiency. Currently, Indonesia is heading towards energy self-sufficiency, one of the steps being the launch of B50. “Today is the day I have been waiting for since before I was inaugurated as president. I always emphasised to my core team and my advisory team that we must achieve food self-sufficiency and energy self-sufficiency. We must not import fuel, we must not import food,” he said. Previously, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia confirmed that Indonesia will no longer import diesel following the official implementation of the 50 percent biodiesel mandate (B50). “With the implementation of B50, we will no longer import diesel, this is the first time,” said Bahlil on Thursday, 9 July 2026. Bahlil acknowledged that this achievement was not attained easily. Typically, the process of increasing the biodiesel blend takes a maximum of ten years on average, including a three-year trial period. However, Bahlil stated that following President Prabowo’s instruction that the B50 mandate must be realised in 2026, the government accelerated efforts to make this happen immediately.