Jakarta. Indonesia is seeking to import Egyptian phosphate to safeguard its fertilizer supply as the populous Southeast Asian country works on its food security. 

President Prabowo Subianto has also nudged his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to start the negotiations for a bilateral preferential trade agreement. If signed, this deal could grant Egyptian phosphate easier access to the Indonesian market due to possible tariff reductions, thus potentially boosting Jakarta’s fertilizer production.

“We are mulling having a trade agreement with Egypt. We need their phosphate for our fertilizers. They [Egypt] need our palm oil,” Prabowo told reporters on the sidelines of his Cairo trip on Wednesday local time. 

Indonesia still imports its fertilizer and the raw ingredients needed for its production. According to the National Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia imported 486,600 tons of Egyptian fertilizers from Egypt -- worth approximately $59.3 million --  in 2023.

Egypt was Indonesia's fourth-largest source of fertilizers that year with China topping the list by supplying around 1.2 million tons. Data shows that Egyptian fertilizer imports were on a decline as the 2022 figures reached 801.4 tons or worth $119.3 million. On the other hand, palm oil is Indonesia’s leading export to Egypt.

Government data shows that Indonesia and Egypt's bilateral trade hit $1.4 billion in January-October 2024. This marked an increase compared to $1.3 billion posted in the same ten-month period in the previous year.

The Prabowo Subianto government has set food security as one of its top priorities. Prabowo also wants Indonesia to be self-sufficient in its food production by 2027. 

In late 2023, Rahmad Pribadi, the boss of the state-run fertilizer maker Pupuk Indonesia, admitted that the country was still heavily reliant on imported fertilizer raw materials, according to local media reports. Earlier that year, Pupuk Indonesia said that the protracted Russia-Ukraine war had forced the company to look for other sources of raw ingredients such as from Egypt and Jordan. Pupuk Indonesia’s annual fertilizer production in 2023 amounted to 18.7 million tons.