Drought affects rice procurement: Beddu
Drought affects rice procurement: Beddu
JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the National Logistics Agency
(Bulog) Beddu Amang said yesterday that the agency's domestic
rice procurement is facing hurdles this year due to last year's
severe drought.
"Bulog so far this year has managed to domestically procure
only 317,703 tons of rice, forty nine percent of which came from
village cooperatives," Beddu was quoted by Antara as saying in
Aceh.
Earlier this week President Soeharto instructed Bulog to
increase its buffer stock of rice to around two million tons in
the 1995-96 fiscal year. Beddu said the agency's rice buffer
stock had reached around one million tons.
Beddu warned that farmers and rice traders would most likely
hold their stocks temporarily.
The Bulog chairman said yesterday that Indonesia's total
demand for rice would reach 27 million tons this year, while per
capita consumption might reach 140 kilograms.
Beddu also said that procurements from various rice growing
areas had been lower than projected.
In East Java, for example, the agency could procure only
200,000 tons of rice in the first months of this year, as
compared to the forecasted 800,000 tons.
In West Java, Bulog could procure only 50,000 tons from the
projected 250,000 tons, Beddu said.
"If domestic procurement could increase our rice buffer stock
to two or three million tons, we would not have to import any
this year," he said.
Last year's severe drought slashed Indonesia's rice production
to 46.40 million tons of unhusked rice, down four percent from
the 1993 production level.
The drought had also brought down the country's rice supply to
the lowest level in 15 years, forcing Bulog to import for the
first time in years.
The government had predicted that this year's rice production
would grow by 1.5 percent from last year's level.
Indonesia, formerly the biggest rice importer in the world,
became self sufficient in 1984. Rice is the main staple diet of
the Indonesian population, currently about 192 million. (hdj)