Argentina is not among Indonesia’s main export destinations, which is reflected in the latter’s agriculture exports. Indonesia exported a total of US$25.1 million in agricultural products to Argentina last year but imported $1.38 billion from the South American country in the same period, leading to a $1.13 billion deficit on Indonesia's side.

The Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers Association’s (Gapmmi) vice chairman for international cooperation, Johan Muliawan, said the main hurdle to fixing the imbalance was high tariffs applied on Indonesian F&B products by Argentina.

“Most of our F&B products are actually competitive enough to enter the Argentinian market [...] but the average import duties [imposed by Argentina] for these products are over 25 percent,” Johan told The Jakarta Post after a business matching meeting between companies of the two countries hosted by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) on Monday. 

The meeting followed the state visit of Argentinian President Mauricio Macri to Indonesia in late June.

“On the other hand, our import duties for Argentinian goods such as raw materials and finished products are not that high, only about 10 percent on average,” he added.

Indonesia ranks 27^th as the largest exporter of agriculture products to Argentina, thanks to its horticulture and plantation shipments. The country still ranks below Southeast Asian neighbor Thailand on the list, Johan said. 

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