Han Revanda, Jakarta – The Trade Ministry approved an import license for 21,074 tons of onions to state-owned trading company PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI), part of food holding ID Food, on Monday, May 5, 2025. The license is suspected to have been issued without an official government mandate.

According to a copy of the approval letter Tempo obtained, the general importer ID (API-U) No. 04.PI-55.25.0904 shows PPI submitted its request on April 30, 2025. The license was approved within five working days, in line with Trade Ministry Regulation No. 36 of 2023, most recently amended by Regulation No. 8 of 2024. Other importers, however, claim their applications have been stalled since January or February.

The license allows PPI to import 3,492 tons from China to Tanjung Perak, 8,791 tons from New Zealand to Tanjung Priok, and another 8,791 tons from New Zealand to Tanjung Perak. This represents 86 percent of the total 24,236-ton onion import quota, with only 3,162 tons shared among 10 private firms.

One suspicious aspect of the permit issuance is that PPI received the lion's share of the quota with no record of an official import mandate. National Food Agency (Bapanas) chief Arief Prasetyo Adi said he had no knowledge of any such assignment. When asked whether PPI had been instructed to import, he replied, "None."

PPI corporate secretary Ira Berlianty Aziz confirmed the onion imports were not government-mandated. "Technically, the onions were not part of a mandate," she said on Monday, May 26, without elaborating on how the license was obtained. She said that the internal procurement staff had recently rotated and were still coordinating.

Ira added that none of the onions had arrived at Indonesian ports yet. The last time PPI imported onions, she said, was in 2020.

Ombudsman member Yeka Hendra Fatika said any state-owned company importing food commodities must do so based on a government mandate. He noted there has been no decision in any limited coordination meeting assigning SOEs to import onions, which are not a staple food requiring government intervention. "Where is the assignment letter? If there is none, then this is maladministration," he said on Wednesday last week.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/2011627/suspicion-over-onion-import-approval-no-record-of-official-mandat