 ‘Send Them a Shipload of Rice’: Australia’s Food Aid to Indonesia, 1960s-1970sNo 5, CEH Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University Abstract: This paper asks why it took 10 years since a major famine in Indonesia in 1957 for Australia’s food aid to increase in greater amounts, and why food aid was so significant In Australia’s foreign aid to Indonesia during the late 1960s and 1970s. Indonesia’s reluctance to apply for food aid under the Colombo Plan is the reason for the delay. A combination of humanitarian, commercial and international relations interests converged to shape Australia’s rapidly growing food aid to Indonesia after 1966. Food aid contributed to alleviating food shortages and famines in Indonesia. It also supported Australian firms in regaining their share in the growing market for wheat-based products in Indonesia, and in building market share for Australian rice exports, in competition with US producers and the US PL480 food aid program. Food aid also allowed Australia to expand its foreign aid program to Indonesia rapidly after 1966, in support of the government of new President Soeharto and improved bilateral relations. Keywords: Australia; Indonesia; international relations; food supply; food aid (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:hpaper:087 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in CEH Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University Contact information at EDIRC. |
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