Indonesia may import more wheat and sugar in September

Indonesia may import more wheat and sugar in September

BANGKOK (Reuters): Indonesia's National Logistics Agency
(Bulog) may issue a tender in September to buy more wheat and
sugar, the agency top official said yesterday.

Beddu Amang, chairman of Bulog, told Reuters the agency might
buy 700,000 tons of wheat and 100,000-200,000 tons of white sugar
next month.

"For this year (April-March), we need to import around 4.25
million tons of wheat grain. We had already bought approximately
1 million tons," Beddu said.

"Bulog might hold a tender in September to buy about 700,000
tons of wheat which is for two-three months of consumption," he
said.

Beddu was in Bangkok, along with other senior officials, to
sign an agreement to buy 500,000 tons of rice from Thailand under
the government-to-government deal.

The latest round of wheat tender was held on July 30 when
Indonesia bought 745,000 tons of the grain from the United
States, Canada and Australia for August, September and October
shipments. The awarded price was between $129.24 and $171.00 per
ton on a cost-and-freight basis.

Beddu said the government would try to phase out the subsidy
of wheat by the end of this year while subsidies of other basic
commodity would continue. The government food subsidies cover
rice, wheat, soybeans, sugar and most recently cooking oil.

"We have to set a priority. The government has subsidized
wheat for a long time now. We intend to gradually cut it and
completely phase out by the end of this (calendar) year," he
said.

As for sugar, Beddu said Bulog might hold a tender to buy
100,000-200,000 tonnes of white sugar next month.

Indonesia's total sugar demand for fiscal 1998/99 (April-
March) was estimated at 3.1 million tons. Of the total, about 1.8
million tonnes are expected to be produced locally and 1.3
million would be imported, he said.

The official said he hoped the private sector would be able to
procure 300,000-400,000 tons of imports while Bulog plans to buy
between 900,000 and 1 million tonnes of sugar, half of which
would be raw sugar.