Indonesia may cut rice imports by 50% next year

JAKARTA (JP): The country could more than halve its huge rice imports next fiscal year if domestic unhusked rice production meets the targeted 52 million metric tons, Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin said on Monday.

Soleh was optimistic imports in the fiscal year beginning in April could be cut to around 2 million tons from the 4.1 million tons in the current fiscal year.

Unhusked rice production is projected to increase by 11 percent to 52 million tons next year from the estimated 46.44 million tons this year, the minister said.

He attributed the projected increase to the government's enhanced efforts to extend rice planting areas and boost productivity.

"I am quite optimistic that we will be able to produce 52 million tons of unhusked rice next year. If we succeed, we could reduce our imports by 50 percent," he said in a year-end news conference.

The targeted unhusked rice amount would make 31 million metric tons of milled rice. Rice consumption for the country's population of more than 200 million is expected to reach 33 million tons next year.

Soleh also said that unhusked rice production this year would be over 47 million metric tons, exceeding the Central Bureau of Statistics's (BPS) latest prediction of 46.44 million tons.

During this year, domestic rice consumption was predicted at 31 million tons, and unhusked rice production was estimated at about 47 million tons, equivalent to about 28 million tons of milled rice.

Soleh said domestic corn production was also expected to increase to 11 million tons next year, up from around 9.79 million tons this year.

Soybean production is expected to increase to 2 million tons in 1999 from 1.31 million tons this year.

Vegetable output is targeted at about 10 million tons, while fruit output is expected to reach 9.5 million tons.

Fish output is expected to rise to 4.9 million tons next year from 4.76 million tons this year.

The country expects to export about 900,000 tons of fish next year, generating about US$2.6 billion in revenue, an increase from $2 billion recorded this year.

Poultry

Soleh said the economic crisis hounding the country since early July last year had severely hurt the poultry and meat sectors.

He said domestic production of meat was expected to drop by 5.33 percent to 1.47 million tons this year from 1.55 million tons last year, egg production would fall by 21.58 percent to 599,900 tons from 764,872 tons produced last year and milk production would dip by 4.3 percent to 405,500 tons.

Soleh said the country's population of egg-producing chickens and broiler chickens fell by 31.7 percent and 15.76 percent respectively in 1998.

He attributed the decline to the sharp increase in the price of feedmeal caused by the acute drop in the rupiah's value against the U.S dollar, bankrupting many small and medium-sized poultry farms.

He said his office's effort to disburse Rp 37.5 billion in cheap loans to distressed poultry farmers was hampered by the tangled bureaucracy in the country's banking sector.

"I'm very disappointed that because of the complicated bureaucracy, the loans could not be channeled to farmers on time. In the future, we need full support from other institutions in boosting agricultural production, so such a situation does not happen again."

In 1999, he said, the country was expected to produce 1.6 million tons of meat, 622,800 tons of eggs and 441,300 tons of milk. (gis)