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Corn miller Tereos FKS breaks through import-dominated industry
PT Tereos FKS, a joint venture between France’s Tereos and local diversified holding company FKS Group, has increased the corn starch milling capacity at its Cilegon factory to 1,300 tons per day, up from 1,000 tons previously, said president director Laurent Lambert.
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Wet corn milling company PT Tereos FKS operates a plant in Cilegon, Banten. (Tereos FKS website)
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et corn miller PT Tereos FKS Indonesia is boosting its production capacity thanks to soaring domestic demand for corn starch and other corn byproducts, which are used in baking, for paper and as sweetener, amid an influx of imports.
Tereos FKS, a joint venture between France’s Tereos and local diversified holding company FKS Group, increased the corn starch milling capacity at its Cilegon factory to 1,300 tons per day, up from 1,000 tons previously, said president director Laurent Lambert.
Domestic demand for corn starch more than doubled within two years to 600,000 tons last year from 270,000 tons in 2016. Tereos FKS contributed 20 percent to domestic demand last year and exported 35,000 tons to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey and Senegal.
In Indonesia, corn starch supply was still dominated by some 400,000 tons of imports last year, which accounted for more than 65 percent of the domestic market, according to Tereos FKS data.
"Our competitors are not domestic players but foreign producers [exporting] their products to Indonesia," Lambert said during a recent visit to The Jakarta Post offices. The corn starch industry was long dominated by imports, but local players are increasingly pushing up their share to meet rising domestic demand.
Corn starch is commonly used in the food and beverage (F&B) industry, especially in bakery, meat processing, confectionery, seasoning and vermicelli, to name a few. It can also produce high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a replacement for sugar used in F&B manufacturing. Corn starch is also common for industrial use, especially as a binding agent in paper production.
“Our biggest buyers in Indonesia are the food and beverage industry, and also the paper industry. Indonesia is a huge market for corn starch [for industrial use] considering it is the sixth-largest [pulp and paper] producer in the world," said Lambert.
