UNS — In the last few weeks, Indonesia, for numerous times, experienced the skyrocketing price of imported soybeans, which dominate the Indonesian soybean market. This phenomenon leads to increased soybean-based product prices such as tofu and tempeh as Indonesian’s favorites food items.
This time, the price increase is caused by the decrease of soybean production in several soybean producer countries amid the Covid-19 pandemic. These countries include the United States as the major soybean supplier to Indonesia. There is also an increase in the transportation cost for soybeans because marine transport took longer due to the restrictions applied by certain countries amid the pandemic.
Bara Yudhistira, S.T.P., M.Sc., a Faculty Member of Food Technology Program (ITP) Faculty of Agriculture (FP) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, stated that in the condition of expensive imported soybeans, the local soybeans should be able to be used as rescuer because local soybean is not affected by the import costs. However, the problem is local soybeans production is still limited. Thus, it is highly possible that its price also experiences a certain level of increase. “According to the Ministry of Agriculture data in 2020, the production of national soybeans only reached 300 thousand tons, which is far from national demand for soybeans,” Bara stated to uns.ac.id, Friday (8/1/2021).
Learning from this phenomenon, Bara emphasized the need to promote local soybeans, both from the production and consumption sides, to achieve soy-beans self-sufficiency. According to Bara, the low national soybeans production needs to be increased at least through two alternatives. First, the government guarantees local soybeans prices as an effort to attract farmers to plant soybeans.
Local soybeans’ good potential was accommodated in Permendag Number 7 of 2020, which regulates the reference price for local soybeans at the farmer of Rp 8.500 per kilogram. “This price is expected to make local soybeans to get cultivated more. But this regulation has not been successful in increasing national soybeans production,” Bara explained.
Therefore, the second alternative is providing education for soybeans-based food producers and the Indonesian community as consumers about the potential of local soybeans with better and healthier nutrition than the imported soybeans. Local soybeans are not Genetic Modified Organism (GMO) or genetically engineered. As an example, the superior soybeans from Grobogan District, Central Java. In addition to not being GMO, local soybeans from Grobogan do not contain preservatives and are fresh. It also contains 43.9% of protein K and 18.4% fat.
“Even in Nurrahman study in 2015, Grobogan local soybeans have 42.32% protein, which is higher than imported soybeans with 37.84%,” Bara stated.
The nutritional value is different from the imported soybeans in Indonesia, mostly genetically engineered or GMO by inserting phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) gen modified from soil bacteria, the Streptomyces viridochromogenes. That way, GMO soybeans are more resistant toward disease and pests, more resistant to herbicides, have a longer shelf life, have higher oleic acid, and have larger bean size. But the soybeans are not as fresh and as healthy as local soybeans.
“If we look further, local soybeans have more advantages, but why we are still cannot maximize the potential?” Bara concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Kaffa Hidayati
Editor: Dwi Hastuti