Indonesia and Brazil are known as commodity producers, but, now, the two countries have come together and are seeking to cooperate beyond trading commodities.

To achieve this, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has established a Brazil committee, headed by Anderson Tanoto.

Anderson said the committee would promote the trade of textile and electronic products to Brazil. Currently, Indonesia exports commodities such as rubber, palm oil and cacao to Brazil.

The youngest son of the forestry tycoon, Sukanto Tanoto, said Kadin aimed to increase the number of Indonesian companies investing in Brazil and vice versa. Currently, the Tanoto family has invested in Bracell, a cellulose pulp company in Bahia, Brazil. Conglomerate Salim Group has also invested in the country and established IndoAgri Brazil.

In exchange, he said, Brazil offered technological cooperation in the field of agribusiness. In the past 20 years, Brazil has doubled their production without using additional land.

“We will arrange a business visit to Brazil first, and then, next, we will establish an exchange program for academics. There are some very good Brazilian universities that we can work with,” Anderson said after a meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday, adding that it would then further explore government-to-government arrangements.

Anderson said that South-South cooperation was important amid a trend of protectionism among developed countries. Moreover, he said, Indonesia and Brazil were similar in many ways; both were populous and mainly tropical agricultural countries.

“Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil and Brazil is the largest soybean producer. Both nations will feed the world so cooperation [between the two countries] would be incredible,” he said.

Brazilian Ambassador to Indonesia Rubem Antônio Corrêa Barbosa said South American countries, including Brazil, were looking to expand their trade to Asia as they saw Indonesia as an entry point to the Southeast Asian market.

He said that Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur), Latin America’s premier economic bloc, sought to establish a free trade agreement with ASEAN. However, due to a prolonged negotiation process between ASEAN and the European Union, Mercosur narrowed down its target to Indonesia.

The establishment of a free trade agreement will be one of the main topics that Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes discusses during his visit to Indonesia from May 10 to 12.

Barbosa said the foreign minister would sign at least three agreements, with the first agreement granting Indonesian passport bearers a 30-day stay without a visa in Brazil and the second boosting the tourist sector, primarily to welcome more Brazilians to Indonesia.

Third, the two countries will sign an agreement on the aforementioned technical cooperation in the agriculture sector.

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