DENVER — Following a trip to Indonesia supported by the National Pork Board, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) reported strong potential for growing demand for US pork in the country.

With Indonesia being a primarily Muslim country, a large portion of the population does not eat pork. However, USMEF Chair Randy Spronk still sees a significant market for pork in the nation.

He estimated the population size to total 275 to 280 million people, of which approximately 85-87% are Muslim. The remaining percentage equates to around 35 to 36 million people.

“That's Canada,” Spronk said, noting the size of the market for potential pork consumers. “And so, there’s still a lot of opportunity.”

Spronk views Indonesia as a long-term growth market.

“I think we were 1.13 kg per capita consumption,” he said. “It reminds me of Colombia, where you were low teens per capita consumption, where you actually came in and doubled the consumption over a 10-year period. I think it's got great opportunities to be able to do that.”

There is currently no free trade agreement with Indonesia and a 5% tariff rate.

Finding success in the Indonesian market are Indiana soy growers, who have built strong relationships for providing protein in the market. Spronk believes this could be beneficial for US pork producers.

“Talking to the importer of the soybeans, they already have the logistics there to distribute soybeans to a multitude of islands to be able to have them process daily on each one of these items,” Spronk said. “That company was actually looking to get their beef import licenses, so I think that firm there has the logistics, has the infrastructure there.”

Though current volumes of US pork exports to Indonesia are negligible, USMEF reported an increase of market share from 11.5% in 2023 to 38.5% in 2024, largely due to reduced supply from the European Union.