New rice floor prices expected in February<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The new floor prices of rice are likely to be
\nannounced at the beginning of the harvesting season next month,
\nsaid the chairman of the National Logistics Agency (Bulog), Beddu
\nAmang.<\/p>\n
Unlike in previous years, Beddu said the new prices would
\nconcur with farm input prices, which include fertilizers and
\npesticides.<\/p>\n
While Beddu refused to say how much, he said last November
\nthat the government was planning to increase rice floor prices by
\nat least 10 percent.<\/p>\n
Higher than the inflation rate, the increase was expected to
\nassure farmers of a higher real income for rice.<\/p>\n
The government decided not to raise the floor prices of rice
\nlast October, when market prices were considered high and
\nfavorable enough for rice farmers.<\/p>\n
The government usually announces new floor prices at the
\nbeginning of the October planting season to protect farmers from
\nunusually low prices, though the new prices usually don't become
\neffective until the beginning of the following year.<\/p>\n
The current price of unhusked rice, Rp 400 (17 U.S. cents) per
\nkilogram, was announced by the government in October, 1994, and
\nbecame effective this month.<\/p>\n
The government usually sets the new prices of fertilizer prior
\nto the announcement of new floor prices for rice.<\/p>\n
Beddu said the government decided to change the timing of the
\nnew price announcements when rice farmers began to complain about
\nhaving to pay higher fertilizer prices.<\/p>\n
He then added that Bulog, when procuring rice from farmers in
\nthe next (1996-97) harvesting season, would apply stricter
\nquality standards.<\/p>\n
\"This will be different from the last two years when Bulog set
\nrather loose standards for the rice it bought from farmers,\"
\nBeddu was quoted by the Republika daily as saying yesterday.<\/p>\n
Bulog was set up by the government in 1967 to control the
\ndistribution and importation of several basic foodstuffs --
\nincluding rice, sugar, wheat, corn and soybean -- to ensure
\nnational food security and reasonable incomes for farmers.<\/p>\n
Beddu said yesterday he was optimistic his agency would be
\nable to guarantee national food security this year.<\/p>\n
Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said last month
\nthat his office has set its rice production target at 52 million
\ntons, or four percent higher than the 1995 level.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, formerly the biggest rice importer in the world,
\nbecame self sufficient in 1984. In 1994 however, unfavorable
\nclimates and plant diseases forced the country to revert to
\nimports.<\/p>\n
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, production in
\nIndonesia fell by 3.2 percent to 46.6 million tons of unhusked
\nrice in 1994 -- the lowest level in 15 years -- from 48.2 million
\ntons in 1993.<\/p>\n
The market has not yet fully recovered. Prices of rice in the
\nlast sixth months of 1995 reportedly soared in many parts of the
\ncountries, forcing Bulog to intervene through market operations
\nwith rice supplies which were obtained from imports and other
\nsources.<\/p>\n
Last November, Bulog's rice stocks reached 1.3 million tons.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, rice consumption is expected to increase by 1.5 to
\n2 percent per year due to an increasing population and the diet
\nchanges brought about by better incomes.<\/p>\n
Rice is currently the staple diet of nearly 90 percent of
\nIndonesia's 190 million people. (pwn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/new-rice-floor-prices-expected-in-february-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}