Indonesia has bold aspirations for its garlic industry as it looks to achieve zero garlic imports by 2018.
“We aim to see 100,000 hectares of garlic farms next year. If 1 hectare [ha] can produce 5 tons [of garlic], we won't need to import anymore,” Agriculture Ministry spokesperson Agung Hendriadi told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Tuesday.
Annual garlic consumption for household and industrial needs reached 500,000 tons in 2015, but only 20,000 tons of it was planted domestically. The remaining 480,000 tons were imported from China and India, ministry data shows.
Last year, the government expanded garlic farms, which jacked up the national production of garlic to almost 200,000 tons.
Agung also said that the Trade Ministry had set maximum price of Rp 38,000 per kilogram for garlic and would maintain the price to encourage farmers to cultivate garlic.
1 RP = 0.000075 USD
