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)