Addiction to Food Imports

Ironically, Indonesia, instead, relies heavily on imported raw materials for its manufacturing industry.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Enny Sri Hartati

In the era of economic openness, importing goods or services has certainly become common practice, and some time it is even a necessity, because trade cooperation with other countries cannot be established if there is no reciprocal agreement. In short, there is no single country in the world that runs its economy by only exporting without importing, especially in the free trade era, when trade barriers such as import and export duties have mostly been removed.

Almost all countries are competing to pursue efficiency with a special focus on highly competitive products. Moreover, technology and global supply chain have become more advanced. In order to pursue efficiency, a product no longer relies on raw materials or components from a local source. Now raw materials are sourced from a number of countries. Of course, only countries with high competitiveness are selected in the global supply chain.