Indonesian Farmers protest against potato imports

On Tuesday, a group of farmers protested in front of the Trade Ministry in Jakarta against the arrival of imported potatoes that they say were having a detrimental impact on sales of homegrown produce.

“We urge the government to revoke the potato import policy because it is hurting farmers,” Sunarjo, a farmer from Sumberejo village in Banjarnegara, Central Java, said Tuesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Sunarjo added that since there had been a surge in potato imports into Indonesia, the price of local potatoes had dropped from Rp 7,000-Rp 8,000 per kilogram (around 90 US cents) to around Rp 4,000 per kilogram.

The Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI) confirmed that the slump in potato prices was caused by the arrival of imported potatoes from China and Bangladesh.