Indonesia has pledged to import more soybeans from the US than it consumes in a year

Indonesia may struggle to meet its commitments to significantly increase imports of U.S. agricultural products under a new trade deal, traders said. The brunt of the sharp increase in purchases of U.S. soybean meal could fall on a government agency recently given authority to buy animal feed, Reuters reported.

Indonesia last week finalized a deal that slashes U.S. tariffs on its goods from 32% to 19%, with key products such as palm oil, cocoa and rubber exempted from import duties.

In return, Indonesia has pledged to increase annual imports of U.S. wheat to 2 million tons from 1.1 million tons last year, increase purchases of soybeans to 3.5 million tons from 2.2 million tons, and increase imports of soybean meal to 3.8 million tons from 216,257 tons, among other commitments.

“Indonesian mills are already buying more U.S. wheat,” said a trader at an international trading company that supplies wheat and feed grains to Indonesia.

The country’s purchases of U.S. wheat have increased to 1.1 million tons in 2025 from 750,000 tons a year earlier, he said.

“At best, they will be able to buy 1.25-1.3 million tons in 2026,” he added.

As for soybeans, Indonesia already buys most of its soybeans from the United States to meet growing demand for tofu and tempeh, a traditional fermented soybean product. But the new commitments to the United States exceed the country’s total annual imports.

According to the Indonesian Soybean Importers Association (Akindo), the country consumes 2.7-2.9 million tons of soybeans each year, almost all of which are imported.

“The commitment to buy 3.5 million tons per year must be assessed realistically so as not to exceed domestic demand and disrupt the supply balance,” Akindo chairman Hidayatullah Suralaga said on Tuesday.

In 2025, Indonesia bought 216,000 tons of U.S. soybean meal, about 50 percent more than a year earlier but far below the 3.8 million tons it had pledged to buy.

Due to the large volume of commitments, Indonesia may instruct state-owned animal feed importer Berdikari to purchase larger volumes to meet agreements with the United States, even if prices are higher than competing suppliers, a Singapore-based trader said.

Tags: Indonesia, soybean, USA