Minister rejects plan to import rice

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After confirming with the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) that there would be no drought in the second semester of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture has turned down a proposal by state-owned logistics company Perum Bulog to import rice.

"We (the ministry and the BMG) don't see any threat of a long drought as had been claimed earlier by Bulog. Therefore, we don't see any urgency for importing rice," Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono told a press briefing at the State Palace on Thursday.

Bulog President Director Widjanarko Puspoyo had said on Monday that farmers would not be able to supply the estimated rice buffer stock requirement of 2.25 million tons for this year due to a possible drought between June and December. He added that the best-case scenario for the rice stock would be only two million tons. Therefore, he had asked Vice President Jusuf Kalla to approve Bulog's plan to import some 300,000 tons of the commodity.

"Maybe Bulog was referring to weather forecasts by foreign countries. The drought is unlikely to reach such an extreme level as to affect our rice stocks," Anton said.

If the government were to accede to Bulog's request, it would mean revoking the country's rice import ban. This has been in place since early last year with the goal of protecting the price of local rice.

In addition, it is also aimed at preventing rice smuggling by firms working in cahoots with corrupt Bulog officials.

Anton said that Indonesia would not face any problems with the rice import ban in the immediate future.

"We are likely to remain self-sufficient in rice production this year, although the harvest is expected to be more or less similar to last year's," he said.

The country's unhusked rice production this year is estimated to reach some 54.1 million tons, relatively flat compared to last year. Previously, Indonesia had been importing an average of 500,000 tons of rice per year. Rice is the principal staple foodstuff of the country's 220 million people.

The estimated flat growth in rice production this year has been attributed to a number of natural disasters around the country, mostly involving floods.

Anton said his ministry and the Ministry of Trade would review the import ban in June based on predictions and input from various agencies with a view to seeing whether the ban should be extended until December.