Idaho wheat industry hosts top Indonesian flour milling companies

Idaho Wheat Commission

Executives from PT Cerestar/Harvester, headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, with four milling units across Java and Sumatra, visited Idaho’s wheat industry in August,

The trade group was joined by executives from Interflour Group, headquartered in Singapore with mills in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 

While in Idaho, the two groups visited the farm of Idaho Wheat Commissioner “Genesee Joe” Anderson, the Lewis-Clark Terminal in Lewiston, and country elevators with CHS Primeland and PNW Cooperative.

PT Cerestar/Harvestar was represented by Maria Widiyanti, quality control manager for PT Harvestar Flour Mills, and Kevin Widjaja, supply chain manager for PT Cerestar Flour Mills. 

PT Cerestar/Harvestar was established in 2007 and began milling in 2008. The company’s total milling capacity is 3,370 metric tons (7,429,578 pounds) of wheat per day. 

On average, 25 percent of the wheat purchased by PT Cerestar/Harvestar comes from the United States. Primary end uses are cookies, crackers, confectionary, noodles, and breads. The primary class of wheat purchased is U.S. soft white wheat.

Interflour Group owns and operates nine flour milling units in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations area. The total capacity of the mills in the ASEAN region is 7,000 metric tons (15,432,340 pounds) of wheat per day, or approximately 2 million metric tons annually.  Interflour buys U.S. soft white and hard red spring wheat and about 30 percent of their supply comes from the United States, placing Interflour among the top three buyers of U.S. wheat. Yu Fei, senior director, and Joyce Gan, group commodity procurement manager, represented the Interflour Group on the tour. 

Teams were accompanied by Matt Weimar, U.W. Wheat Associates’ regional vice president for South Asia and senior advisor for Asia, and Ivan Goh, baking specialist for U.S. Wheat Associates. 

Wheat consumption in the ASEAN region has grown from 13 pounds per person per year in 2002 to 30 pounds per person per year in 2017.