Agri-food commodity mapping and trade between Indonesia and Australia

¹ Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Faculty of Agriculture, Purwokerto 53122, Indonesia
² Indonesian Centre for Agricultural Socio Economic and Policy Studies, Bogor, 16124, Indonesia
³ State Islamic University of Walisongo, Semarang, 50185, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: syahrul.ganda@unsoed.ac.id

Abstract

This article investigates the dynamics of comparative advantage and trade performance in agri-food items between Indonesia and Australia. The method used in this study is to measure comparative advantage and export performance from 2000 to 2019 using balassa index (BI), Lafay index (LFI), and trade balance index (TBI). The findings show that Indonesia significantly reported negative TBI in trading both with the world and Australia, using a 'products mapping' methodology focused on trade balance index (TBI), Balassa index (BI), Lafay index (LFI), and other descriptive approaches. According to the results of both BI and LFI, Indonesia has a high rate of unfavorable TBI in total food items, both globally and in Australia, indicating that the nation has depended heavily on food imports for home use. Indonesia's competitive advantage in trade with Australia was 9/31 food items, according to the product mapping. Indonesia has competitive disadvantages and a negative TBI in 9/31 food items traded with Australia. Indonesia urgently needs to increase investment and enforce policies on domestic agriculture and food value chains to improve its exports and competitiveness, especially in products with natural advantages.