Govt rice stock is enough for seven months: Bulog

Govt rice stock is enough for seven months: Bulog

JAKARTA (JP): The government's rice stock is sufficient to
feed the nation for seven months, Food Minister Ibrahim Hasan
said yesterday in dismissing concerns that Indonesia may be
forced to import the staple crop because of the drought.

Ibrahim, who also heads the government's food logistic agency
(Bulog), told reporters yesterday that the government has piled
up sufficient stock that not only precludes the need to import,
but also allows it the luxury of exporting some.

He disclosed that Bulog currently holds 1.1 million tons of
rice in its warehouses across the nation.

Some of the stocks have been used in the agency's open market
operation recently designed to stabilize prices in various
regions.

Rice prices in some cities have shot up in recent weeks amidst
fears that the severe dry season has destroyed large acres of
rice fields and therefore threatened supplies of rice, the
nation's staple diet.

Bulog also procures rice from farmers and supplies the
government and the Armed Forces (ABRI), which pay their staff
partly in kind.

Ibrahim said that there are two possible scenarios that may
arise from the impact of the current severe drought on the
nation's rice supply.

One is that it is only a temporary. "For this, Bulog and the
government are prepared to deal with likely shortages."

He said that besides the stock held in Bulog, Indonesia is
also expecting to receive some 200,000 tons of rice from other
Asian countries which are paying back their loans this year.

Indonesia had loaned rice to the Philippines and Vietnam in
the past and is now calling on their payments.

Ibrahim said his recent trip to Bangkok was to arrange for the
shipment of some 100,000 tons of rice. "I didn't go there to buy
rice."

The second scenario is that if the severe dry season last more
than seven months, he said. "If that is the case, although this
is unlikely, then the government may have to import rice from
overseas."

Ibrahim said the government plans to import some 250,000 tons
of rice sometime this year to strengthen its stock. "We won't
place the order now because the price might increase. We'll do it
quietly."

Indonesia has been compelled to open up its rice market under
the new General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) which calls
for sweeping liberalization of international trade. (emb)