Jakarta. Indonesia is now exploring plans to set up an urea fertilizer production plant in Russia’s Vladivostok, with the investment to be spearheaded by the state-owned Pupuk Indonesia.

The company inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the margins of President Prabowo Subianto’s recent whirlwind trip to Vladivostok.

In a video statement uploaded Friday, Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani said that Russia — a leading fertilizer supplier — was open to inbound investments in this field.

“We have just signed an MoU for a joint study on the possibility of an urea fertilizer plant in Vladivostok,” Rosan told the press.

He did not say whether this joint study had a deadline or the name of the Russian partner that would be involved in the project.

Rosan — who helms the sovereign wealth fund Danantara that oversees the fertilizer maker — went on to say that the project is expected to “give an impetus for domestic food security and industrial resilience”.

“Pupuk Indonesia has shown improvements in its financial performance and efficiency, thus enabling them to actually invest here,” Rosan said.

Pupuk Indonesia boss Rahmad Pribadi was upbeat that this could help with the company’s global expansion, while citing Vladivostok’s strategic location. He added: “Vladivostok faces the Pacific region, which has been a key market for us.”

Also on the same day, Prabowo admitted that Pupuk Indonesia would be working with “one of the biggest groups here in Russia”, but kept the partner anonymous.

His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was in the room when he called their countries as being complementary in trade.

Russia can be Indonesia’s fertilizer supplier as Jakarta sells other commodities like palm oil and textiles, according to Prabowo.

On the aforementioned performance, Pupuk Indonesia recorded a 252.8% increase in its first-half net profit. A few months ago, the company floated plans to export up to 2 million tons of fertilizers to repair the disrupted supply chains following the Iran war.

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