Indonesia Trying to be World's Main Food Estate

MAKASSAR, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia is trying to become the world’s main food estate in the next five to 10 years, a minister said.

"If we work hard, in the next five to 10 years we can increase our food production and productivity," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Radjasa said here on Sunday.

Hatta Rajasa who was here to install members of the South Sulawesi provincial executive board of the National Mandate Party (PAN) of which he is chair said all regions in the country including South Sulawesi had the potential to give large contributions to the attainment of the target.

"When it comes to food, we have now contributed to the world’s need for palm oil. But we also have to work hard to become a supplier of staple food," he said.

The minister said at the opening of Agrinex International Expo last Friday that Indonesia must show its ability to become the world’s food estate. South Sulawesi was among the participants of the three-day expo.

Head of the Promotion and Investment Subsection at the South Sulawesi Provincial Investment Coordinating Board (BKMD) Devo Khadaffi said in a short message text that South Sulawesi displayed a number of its key processed farm commodities at the expo, including cocoa, seaweed, and coffee.