A vendor displays onions at Jatinegara market in Jakarta on July 31. Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries could bolster their push for food security by including Australia and New Zealand in regional food-sharing mechanisms. Photo: Bloomberg
Opinion
Genevieve Donnellon-May
Genevieve Donnellon-May
Australia and New Zealand key to ensuring Asean’s food security
The challenges facing East and Southeast Asian nations’ food security efforts require looking farther south for lasting solutions
During a recent Asean-Australia post-ministerial conference in Vientiane, Laos, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi highlighted the critical role partners such as Australia must play in easing the region’s food insecurity.
In recent years, overlapping crises – including pandemics, supply chain disruptions, great power competition, regional tensions and increasingly devastating climate change effects – have caused havoc for regional food supplies and trade.
Food import-reliant Southeast Asian and East Asian countries are among the most affected, and the prospect of additional supply chain disruptions to food imports is undeniably alarming. While some such as the Philippines import more than 25 per cent of their food, others like Singapore import more than 90 per cent.
The food security of Southeast Asia is linked to that of Northeast Asia. Figures for food import dependence in Northeast Asia for key agricultural products are even more alarming. For instance, Japan relies on imports for wheat (83 per cent), soybeans (78 per cent) and edible oils (97 per cent).
Boosting domestic agricultural production seems like the obvious answer. Yet the severity of challenges that countries face, such as land and water constraints, cannot be solved overnight. Instead, a regional approach is needed.
Some steps have already been taken. Notably, the Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve with China, Japan, and South Korea provides a collective rice reserve for use in emergencies or natural disasters. However, the current environment shows that stronger measures which draw on leading food-producing partners such as Australia are needed.
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Why the global rice supply is in crisis
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To achieve this, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia and New Zealand could jointly form an Asean Plus Five collective emergency reserve and food-sharing platform. The inclusion of Australia and New Zealand could create a food-sharing platform of more than 2 billion people across 15 countries. Doing so would bring together leading food exporters and major importers.
Food demands in the region will continue rising amid growing populations, expanding middle classes and higher incomes. This will further strain current food production and trade. Yet increasing demands are unlikely to be met by Asian agricultural producers and exporters alone. Australia and New Zealand are well-placed to help. Participating in the proposed Asean mechanism could turn them into the region’s much-needed “food bowl”, boosting exports and intraregional trade.
There are other benefits for Canberra and Wellington. Stronger economic ties reflect the governments’ interests in Asia. For Canberra in particular, the security and prosperity of Australia and Southeast Asia are interlinked, as its Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 points out.
However, challenges lie ahead. Aside from lingering tensions between China and Australia and tensions in hotspots such as the South China Sea, other concerns including climate shocks and natural resource competition, which exacerbate food inflation and damage agricultural production, should be noted.
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Broader concerns about the viability and resilience of the Australia-Asean partnership, as well as Australia’s bilateral relations with states in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, should be considered, too. In recent years, Canberra’s food export policies at times have raised the ire of its trading partners.
In 2011, Australia imposed a six-month ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia following the release of footage showing animal cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs. The temporary ban and sudden loss of a key export market had significant economic repercussions for Australian stakeholders including farmers and exporters. Estimates at the time suggested that the suspension of all live cattle exports to Indonesia could cost the industry as much as A$320 million.
On the diplomatic front, the ban strained Australia-Indonesia relations. Indonesian officials condemned the decision, viewing it as interference in their domestic affairs and economic interests. The live export dispute between Australia and Indonesia was later resolved through negotiations and commitments to improve animal welfare standards.
Australia learned significant lessons from this episode. In particular, the dispute helped Australian policymakers better understand local conditions and the importance of working in consultation and collaboration with Southeast Asian partners.
Australian beef at a supermarket in Beijing. Australia is a leading meat exporter, being the world’s fourth largest beef exporter in 2022 while supplying half the world’s sheep meat in 2023. Photo: AFP
For any food security grouping to work, Australia must also consider potential challenges with regard to Northeast Asian partners. For instance, its barley trade with China has been marred by significant disputes. The most prominent occurred in 2020 when China imposed 80.5 per cent anti-dumping tariffs on barley imports, effectively blocking exports to the Chinese market. China’s Ministry of Commerce said Australian barley was being sold at unfairly low prices, which it argued harmed the barley industry in China.
The tariffs hurt the Australian barley industry. Between 2014-15 and 2018-19, Australian barley exports to China averaged about A$1.2 billion a year. However, Australian farmers and exporters were forced to find alternative markets such as Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Concurrently, the average value of barley exports dropped from A$407 per tonne in 2019-20 to A$310 per tonne in 2020-21.
To help restore trust with Beijing, Canberra could engage in sustained diplomatic dialogue. Establishing regular high-level meetings between trade representatives could help address misunderstandings as well as provide a platform for resolving food import or export-related disputes within the proposed Asean Plus Five mechanism.
Amid an increasingly fractured geopolitical environment, stronger intraregional trading and wider emergency food reserves could support greater regional stability and resilience to transnational challenges. There is a need to do so. Food is too important to leave off the region’s policy menu.
Genevieve Donnellon-May is a researcher at Oxford Global Society, the Asia-Pacific analyst for The Red Line podcast and a 2023 Pacific Forum Young Leader
