Bulog to increase rice stocks to 1 million tons

JAKARTA (JP): The National Logistics Agency (Bulog) will increase its rice stocks from 800,000 tons at present to more than one million tons by the end of this year, the agency's chairman, Ibrahim Hasan said yesterday.

Ibrahim, who is also State Minister of Food, announced after a hearing with Commission VII of the House of Representatives that the increase will come mostly from the repayment of rice borrowing by other countries and imports under a counter-trade arrangement.

He said that in October alone, Bulog will receive around 400,000 tons of rice from a number of countries.

The increase is necessary to secure domestic supplies at a time the country's rice production will likely decrease due to a severe drought, he said.

He acknowledged that the drought is likely to slash this year's rice production by 4.4 percent from last year's level of 48 million tons of unhusked rice -- equivalent to 29 million tons of husked rice.

However, Ibrahim said that Indonesia will remain self- sufficient in rice this year because its rice production will likely reach 27.7 million tons of husked rice, while its consumption is estimated at 26.6 million tons.

The current drought, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, has affected about 843,000 hectares of rice fields, of which 150,000 hectares have been completely destroyed. (05)