I'nesia eyes 600,000 tonnes of rice
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The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) will have to import at least 600,000 tonnes of rice later this year due to low production caused by weather anomalies and poor irrigation systems in Indonesia, the agency's senior executive said.
Director Sutarto Alimoeso said rice imports were unavoidable because Bulog’s inventory had declined sharply after the government needed to provide more rice for the poor after the recent fuel increases.
He said rice imports were also necessary because of the lower than expected unhusked rice production this year, which was expected to increase only 0.31 per cent to 69.27 million tonnes due to weather anomalies.
The agency previously announced that it would be unnecessary to import rice this year as stocks and additional production would be more than enough to meet demand.
However, Sutarto now says that with the projected small increase in production, existing stocks would not be enough to meet demand as the government would distribute 700,000 tonnes from Bulog’s warehouses in the rice-for-the-poor programme (Raskin).
“Bulog has to at least keep a year-end stock of 2 million tonnes to supply needs and stabilise the price during the January-March planting period, when stocks are low. Low production combined with the additional allocation for Raskin might lead us to import 600,000 tonnes of rice to keep a minimum amount of stock,” he said.
According to Central Statistics Agency data, Indonesia produced 69.06 million tonnes of unhusked rice or around 40 million tonnes of rice last year. The annual national consumption of rice is around 34.05 million tonnes.
Last year, rice production rose 5.02 per cent year-on-year, enabling Bulog to purchase 3.65 million tonnes of rice domestically, which is the agency’s record high for local rice procurement.
In July last year, the government told Bulog to import up to 1 million tonnes of rice, but only 670,000 tonnes were brought in – 600,000 tonnes from Vietnam and 70,000 tonnes from India.
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan previously said that with the positive trend in production, Indonesia would not need to import more rice this year.
Agriculture Ministry staple food director-general Udhoro Kasih Anggoro contributed the low production to weather anomalies and damaged irrigation systems.
Anggoro estimated that 2.4 million of 7.3 million hectares of irrigated paddy fields needed rehabilitation, which further hampered efforts to increase production.
