INDONESIA: Plans underway for the first corn processing plant in the country

Plans are afoot to build Indonesia's first corn processing plant in Cilegon, and at 200,000m2 it is set to be the largest such factory in south east Asia. In a country previously reliant on cornstarch imports, the plant is intended to supply much of Indonesia's domestic corn needs, and is to be built under a thirty-year agreement between Sub Indah and the company Krakatau Bandar Samudera. Company president Soepeno Sumardjo revealed yesterday (27 September) that Sub Indah has invested Rp500bn in the project, which will produce 700 tons of processed corn a day. Of that, 35% will be corn gluten meal and non-cholesterol corn oil and the other 65% will be cornstarch, used as feedstock for glucose, fructose, maltose and sorbitol.