Govt temporarily bans rice imports

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.