Govt needs another Rp 3t to import rice

JAKARTA (JP): Newly appointed State Minister of Food and Horticulture A.M. Saefuddin has said the government needs another Rp 3 trillion (US$300 million) to import more rice this year due to a sharp decline in Bulog's stocks.

Saefuddin, who replaced Haryanto Dhanutirto, said Monday that the money could finance up to two million metric tons of imported rice at $250 per ton if the exchange rate was based on Rp 6,000 per U.S. dollar.

He said the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) expected to purchase about two million metric tons of rice from local growers for the 1998/1999 fiscal year.

The agency has collected 80,000 metric tons as of May.

"Rice procured by Bulog in the January to May period this year was only 80,000 tons," he said, adding that Bulog's rice stocks currently stood at 2.5 million metric tons.

Early this year, Bulog chairman Beddu Amang said Indonesia would need to import about 3.3 million metric tons assuming the agency could procure one million metric tons from local growers.

Saefuddin said the government had spent over Rp 3 trillion since December for rice imports. An additional Rp 3 trillion would bring the government's subsidy for imported rice alone to Rp 6 trillion, he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture said early this year that delays in rice planting had adversely affected production this year. This year's harvest was estimated at 45 million metric tons of unhusked rice.

Newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin said Monday the government planned to increase the floor price of unhusked rice next month to Rp 800 (8 U.S. cents) per kilogram from Rp 700 per kilogram to increase farmer incomes.

He said the planned increase, the third in the last four months, would further encourage farmers to boost rice production.

"The main objective of the rice price increase is to improve the real incomes of farmers," Soleh said after a ceremony in which he took the ministerial reigns from his predecessor Justika Sjarifudin Baharsjah, who held the position for a mere two months.

"The government will discuss the plan in the next economic and financial coordinating meeting, but I think the price increase will help farmers a lot," he said.

Early last month, the government announced a 17 percent increase in the producer floor price of unhusked rice to Rp 700 from Rp 600.

The government also raised the price of unhusked rice procured by Bulog from village cooperatives 16.2 percent to Rp 716 per kilogram from Rp 616 per kilogram.

The price of unhusked rice procured by Bulog from parties other than village cooperatives was increased 16.4 percent to Rp 710 per kilogram from Rp 610 per kilogram.

The price of milled rice procured by Bulog from village cooperatives increased 15.8 percent to Rp 1,125 per kilogram from Rp 971 per kilogram and from other sources 16 percent to Rp 1,115 per kilogram from Rp 961 per kilogram.

Soleh said farmer production costs had increased over 100 percent in the last several months, much higher than the increases in rice prices.

Famous for his research in agronomy, Soleh, 54, was rector of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) where he first earned a degree in 1972. (gis)