Govt temporarily bans rice imports

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued a decree temporarily banning rice imports during the upcoming harvest season in a bid to help protect farmers' incomes.

Antara said that Ministerial Decree No. 9/MPP/Kep/1/2004 was signed by Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS Soewandi on Saturday, and was effective immediately.

The decree imposes a temporary ban on rice imports a month before, during, and two months after the upcoming harvest season.

"This regulation shall not apply to importers whose rice shipments are due to arrive in port by Jan. 20 at the latest," the ruling states.

The Ministry of Agriculture will determine when exactly the harvest season is, but it normally occurs in March.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade's director of imports, Aang Kanaan Adikusumah, said that the ruling was issued to protect farmers as an influx of rice imports during the harvest season would result in lower prices.

"The ban will only be for around four months ... sometime between February and May," he said.

"We hope that through this measure, farmers will be encouraged to plant more rice and increase their productivity ... The Minister of Agriculture has also said that national rice production is sufficient to meet local demand," he added.

He further explained that in should the upcoming harvest fail, the Minister of Industry and Trade would appoint designated importers to make rice purchases overseas so as to avoid the price of rice from increasing precipitously, thus hurting consumers. The imported rice would have to be shipped through predetermined ports.

Aang said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Agriculture had set up a joint team to monitor the implementation of the temporary import ban.

Indonesia usually imports between 1.8 million and 2 million tons of rice per year.

Pro-farmer activists have complained about the flood of cheap rice imports into the country, which has been hurting the income of farmers. They argue that since rice, the main staple of Indonesians, is a politically strategic commodity, farmers must be protected.

But others say that the rice import ban will only cause an increase in the price of the commodity at home due to the limited supply, which in turn would also hurt farmers as they are also net rice consumers.