The ongoing Thailand-Cambodia conflict exemplifies how risky food imports can be, according to President Prabowo Subianto, as Indonesia managed to feed its own people with its self-produced rice last year
Indonesia is trying to stand on its own feet when it comes to food supplies, starting with rice — a common choice for daily meals. Speaking before his cabinet members, Prabowo said Tuesday that Indonesia had been buying rice from Thailand and Cambodia. However, Indonesia managed to stop importing rice in 2025, just in time, as the military clashes between the two ASEAN nations had shown no sign of stopping.
“Imagine if we don’t reach rice self-sufficiency in the middle of the wars that are happening everywhere. And now, our past suppliers, Cambodia and Thailand, are always at war. They will negotiate a ceasefire. It will be peaceful for a while until another fight erupts,” Prabowo told his ministers at a cabinet retreat in Hambalang.
He named the India-Pakistan hostilities as another example, as Indonesia secures some of its agrifood from New Delhi. Prabowo also looked back on how Indonesia could not import food during the Covid-19 pandemic “despite having the money to do so”.
“And imports mean foreign exchange outflows,” Prabowo said.
According to Prabowo, Indonesia’s ability to not import any rice in 2025 means the government reached three years earlier than targeted. The rice reserves in national warehouses topped 3 million tons, reaching an all-time high. Reserves once peaked at 2 million tons during former leader Suharto’s era.
Prabowo also pushed for self-sufficiency in cassava, corn, and protein.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that Indonesia did not import any medium-quality rice in 2025 as of October. However, the Southeast Asian country still brought in foreign premium-quality rice and other specialized variants, such as the basmati. Indonesia imported broken rice commonly used for industrial purposes, according to BPS.
Thailand had been Indonesia’s largest foreign rice supplier, totaling nearly 1.4 million tons in 2024, BPS data showed. In 2024, the Indonesian government unveiled plans to import 22,500 tons of Cambodian rice to safeguard supplies. Rice imports from India, too, remained quite large that year at 246,587 tons.
Prabowo’s comment came shortly after Thailand accused Cambodia of violating a 10-day-old truce that started on Dec. 27. The conflict began with a decades-old border dispute, which grew into military clashes. In July, they reached a ceasefire brokered by Malaysia and the US. They renewed the ceasefire in late December after fighting resumed earlier that month.
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