Indonesia Negotiates Plant Commodity Market Access With 13 Countries

Indonesia's plant quarantine authority is negotiating export market access for plant commodities with 13 countries, according to UKM Indonesia, which reported on a presentation by the Plant Quarantine Risk Management Directorate of Badan Karantina Indonesia (Barantin) at the From Local to Global export meet-up held with Smesco Indonesia in September 2026.

The talks cover mango and wasabi to Australia, mango and melon to Japan, fresh durian and sweet corn to China, and a range of ornamental plants to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

What is on the table

Barantin is the government agency that controls the movement of plants and animals across Indonesia's borders, a function separate from Bea Cukai, the customs administration, which handles duties and customs paperwork. Market access negotiation is the stage that precedes any legal shipment: each importing country sets its own quarantine conditions, product by product, to keep pests and plant diseases out.

• Australia: mango and wasabi
• Japan: mango and melon
• China: fresh durian and sweet corn
• Argentina, Chile and Uruguay: ornamental plants

The list is separate from commodities whose protocols are already agreed and in active use. Frozen durian to China ships under a formal protocol, as do mangosteen and porang. The 13-country map covers products still under negotiation or in the process of having access reopened, routes that exporters cannot use yet.

Four stages before the first shipment

Barantin sets out four steps that must be completed before a commodity can legally be sent to a destination market:

• A market access request is submitted to the partner country, usually originating with farmers, exporters, regional governments or ministries.
• Technical information on the commodity is prepared for the destination country's pest risk analysis.
• Technical negotiation follows with the partner country's National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO), the counterpart quarantine authority.
• Technical guidance is given to farmers, farmer groups and exporters so they can meet the requirements once access opens.

The timetable cannot be fixed in advance and the process can run for years. Negotiations on mangosteen access to Australia stalled because Indonesian orchards did not meet methyl bromide fumigation requirements, and shipments became possible only after the protocol was revised in January 2026.

Agreed access is not the same as trade

The reverse case is equally instructive for anyone sizing these markets. Access for pineapple to New Zealand and the United States was agreed in 2024 and 2025, but realised volumes remain zero, which UKM Indonesia attributes to limited exporter interest and constraints in raw material supply. Protocols create the right to ship; they do not create supply, buyers or margins.

Volumes and the macro backdrop

Where access and demand already line up, the volume response has been steep. Mangosteen export volumes rose from about 44 million kilograms in 2023 to more than 915 million kilograms in 2025, while salak went from 2.3 million kilograms to 557.6 million kilograms over the same period. The report links mangosteen's trajectory to its positioning as a premium superfood in global markets.

On the macro side, Indonesian agricultural export value reached US$2.58 billion in the first half of 2026, with coffee the leading item at US$786.2 million. That figure covers a different period and comes from a different source than the BPS June 2026 report, which recorded an annual decline of 11.36 percent in the agricultural sector on weaker coffee and spice performance, a movement the report says should not be read as weakness in horticulture.

Producers whose commodities are absent from the 13-country list are advised to check with the nearest Barantin technical unit or via karantinaindonesia.go.id, since access for some products may already be active.