Govt to set standards for imported rice

Govt to set standards for imported rice

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will
set standards of quality for imported rice in a bid to protect
farmers from an influx of cheap rice, a senior official said on
Tuesday.

"We hope the standards can be issued within the next one or
two weeks," the director-general of food crops production,
Syarifuddin Karama, said during a seminar on the problems facing
Indonesia's rice farmers.

Syarifuddin said importers only would be allowed to import
high-quality rice, a step meant to prevent the sale of imported
rice from affecting the price of local rice.

Although Indonesia has set an import tariff of 10 percent on
imported rice, an influx of cheap rice from Thailand and other
Asian countries has caused a sharp drop in rice prices on the
domestic market.

"With a limited supply of imported rice on the market, it is
hoped that farmers will be able to sell their unhusked rice at
the government's floor-price," Syarifuddin said.

The government set in December 1998 the floor-price for
unhusked rice at between Rp 1,400 (16 U.S. cents) and Rp 1,500 a
kilogram, but oversupply caused by an influx of imported rice and
an increase in local production has caused prices to drop to
between Rp 700 and Rp 900 a kilogram.

Syarifuddin said the quality standards would be imposed on
rice imported by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) as well as
private importers.

He also said that this year domestic rice production would be
enough to meet the national demand of some 30 million tons, the
first time in 10 years the country will be self-sufficient in
rice.

Production of unhusked rice this year is expected to reach 53
million tons, the equivalent of 30 million tons of milled rice,
in addition to the rice stock of 1.7 million tons held by Bulog.

Despite achieving rice self-sufficiency, Syarifuddin said the
government would continue importing high-quality rice to fill
temporary gaps in production.

Indonesia first reached rice self-sufficiency in 1984, but
declining rice production in 1990 forced the government to begin
importing rice.

Rice imported by private companies reached 42,000 tons in
January and 38,000 tons in February this year, and Bulog imported
1.45 million tons of rice in 1999. (10)