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Indonesia continues to present opportunities for Australia
04 August 2015
Despite recent economic challenges and uncertainties in food import policies, the mid-term outlook for Indonesia indicates substantial opportunities for the Australian red meat industry, largely supported by a rising urban middle class.
Business Monitor International (BMI) forecasts that private consumption growth in Indonesia will be driven by a segment of the population with net incomes between US$10,000 to US$25,000 per annum. This segment is likely to account for 24% of households by 2019, up from 9% in 2015.
With the country’s population expected to reach almost 267 million by 2019, around 64 million Indonesians could be living within this middle to upper middle income category by that time. When this eventuates, the middle class segment of Indonesia alone will be larger than the current total population of South Korea (50 million), or the equivalent of Thailand (67 million).
Beef consumption in Indonesia is anticipated to increase in line with the growth of the middle class, with the volume rising 18% by 2019, to 826,800 tonnes carcase weight (cwt), up from 702,000 tonnes cwt in 2015.
Other positive attributes of the Indonesian market includes:
- Favourable demographic profile – Asia's third-largest population, with 48% of consumers between the ages of 15 and 45
- Opportunity for premium and innovative food products, targeted to the urban middle class
- Concentration of high income earners in Jakarta and Central Java where the country’s most developed transportation infrastructures can be leveraged
Indonesia was the fifth largest beef export destination for Australia in 2014, taking 53,140 tonnes swt of beef. However the market announced changes to its beef trade protocol in January 2015, limiting the type of cuts allowed to be imported from Australia. Imports of Australian live cattle are regulated by the country’s import permit system, and numbers released for the third quarter of 2015 were significantly reduced from the previous year.
