'Food supply will remain at safe level'

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's food supply will remain at a safe level next year as prices of most staples on the world market are likely to drop, a National Logistics Agency (Bulog) official said yesterday.

Chrisman Silitonga, an expert at Bulog, said world production was overflowing resulting in low prices and guaranteeing Indonesia sound food supply.

He said Bulog already had enough rice for next year.

"The government has made special efforts this year to stockpile rice, particularly in the face of next year's general elections," he said.

He said Bulog's had 2.2 million tons of rice. It was local and imported rice.

Chrisman said Bulog's supplies would rise again soon with harvests early next year.

Rice is the staple food of most of Indonesia's 195 million people.

Indonesia was the world's largest net rice importer until 1983. It became self-sufficient in rice in 1984. In 1994, however, it had to begin importing rice again because harsh weather and disease ruined crops.

Bulog figures from a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report for September-October, world rice production during 1996/1997 would reach 565 million tons of unhusked rice.

This is a 10-million-ton increase on the previous fiscal year.

FAO predicted rice trade on the world market next year would be about 4 percent lower than this year's 19 million tons, as there were indications of better harvests in several Asian and African countries.

Bulog, quoting the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), said wheat production for 1996/1997 would reach about 581 million tons, because of better crops in China, the U.S., Canada, Australia and the European Union. This was an 8.4 percent increase.

The 1996/1997 year would see about 116.5 million tons of wheat traded on the world market, up 11.5 million tons from the 105 million tons traded in the previous year.

Corn production for 1996/1997 was predicted at 554.4 million tons, or 8 percent higher than the 550 million tons in 1995/1996. The increase was particularly because of better harvests in the U.S.

The international corn market for 1996/1997 was predicted to trade about 64.5 million tons of corn.

Soybean production for the 1996/1997 fiscal year would reach 130.6 million tons, up 7 million tons from the 123 million tons recorded in the previous year.

Soybean trade for the current fiscal year was expected to reach 32 million tons.

According to the USDA, the current year would see a surplus in granular sugar production, reaching 121.4 million tons in 1996/1997 with consumption at only 119 million tons.

Of the total, cane sugar will account for 85.8 million tons, down 1 percent from the previous year and beet sugar for 35.6 million tons, down 2 percent from the last year. (pwn)