RI seeking to re-export huge quantities of rice<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia, faced with growing rice
\nsupplies, is seeking to re-export some of the huge quantity of
\nrice it imported last year, especially from India, but traders
\nsaid yesterday that there were few buyers around.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, a significant rice producer, turned to imports in
\nlate 1994 after adverse weather conditions hit domestic harvests.
\nThe government put the purchases at 2.0 million tons in the
\n1995\/1996 fiscal year ending this month.<\/p>\n
But local harvests have now returned to normal, swelling rice
\nstocks at National Logistics Agency (Bulog) to two million tons
\nin late February from 1.8 million earlier in the month.<\/p>\n
A trader at a Singapore firm said he heard Indonesia was
\nattempting to re-sell \"hundreds of thousands of tons\" of Indian
\nrice to West Africa.<\/p>\n
But a major Bangkok trader said no deals had been concluded
\nyet. \"They want to re-export but there are very few interested
\nbuyers,\" he said, adding that the exportable volume was estimated
\nto be around 200,000-300,000 tons.<\/p>\n
Traders said the other factors behind Indonesia's attempts to
\nre-export were the low quality of the Indian rice and the problem
\nof obtaining storage space for the grain.<\/p>\n
The bulk of the Indian rice, drawn down from New Delhi's
\nsubstantial government stockpile, was shipped to Indonesia
\nbetween January and October last year.<\/p>\n
\"Despite the quality, the Indonesians initially accepted the
\nrice because they had no choice.<\/p>\n
\"But towards the last quarter of last year, they started
\nrejecting the same rice because of the quality when they realized
\nthey had sufficient stocks,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The rice is still edible but traders said one option is to
\nturn it into animal feed to help cut possible losses.<\/p>\n
Jakarta had committed to buy up to two million tons of Indian
\nrice last year. Traders said they were not sure how much of that
\nrice was delivered but added that the deals which were canceled
\ninvolved cargoes that were not loaded or delayed at Indian ports.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian rice harvest, which started in some parts of
\nJava in February, is expected to go into full swing this month.
\nIndonesia produced 49 million tons of unhusked rice in 1995,
\ncompared with 46.4 million in 1994 and 48.14 million in 1993.<\/p>\n
Bulog chairman Beddu Amang said last month that rice imports
\nwere continuing to arrive and the agency was facing problems in
\nobtaining storage space.<\/p>\n
\"We have enough warehouses to store the rice we will be buying
\nfrom the farmers when the harvesting season comes. Our problem is
\nhow to store the rice imports landing at the major ports,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ri-seeking-to-re-export-huge-quantities-of-rice-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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