Rice import plan will be shelved, Bulog promises
Rice import plan will be shelved, Bulog promises
JAKARTA (JP): The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) said on
Thursday it would reschedule deliveries of rice to be imported
this year to ease pressures on the price of locally produced
rice.
Industry and Trade Minister Rahardi Ramelan, who is also
Bulog's chairman, said the agency would adjust the scheduling and
destinations of the import deliveries to protect the local
market.
"In certain areas, rice delivery would be delayed until the
closing of the harvesting season in April, and we would also
unload some of the rice at areas that do not harvest this year,"
Rahardi told reporters after addressing a seminar here on the
recently enacted antimonopoly law.
The rescheduling of the planned rice imports was needed to
protect rice farmers from a drastic fall in the price of rice in
the local market, he said.
He reiterated that Bulog would continue to import rice to
honor the import contracts secured last year, despite pressures
from agriculturists and industry observers to halt the imports.
Critics called for a stop of the imports because the imported
rice had dragged down the rice price in the domestic market.
Rahardi argued, however, that the imports would not affect the
local market because some of the imported rice was kept as
Bulog's stocks.
"Bulog imports rice as a buffer stock. It doesn't immediately
distribute the rice except when it has to stabilize the market,"
he said.
Bulog has a total import commitment of 4.6 million tons of
rice for the 1998/199 fiscal year ending in March, of which 3.9
million tons have been delivered.
The government has forecast an increase in domestic rice
production to 32.86 million tons of milled rice this year from 29
million tons last year.
It expected to import about 2 million metric tons of rice this
year.
The Indonesian Farmers Association, led by the former minister
of transmigration and resettlement of forest squatters, Siswono
Yudohusodo, has said that Indonesia did not need to import rice
because the average annual yield of about 32 million tons of
milled rice was sufficient to supply the 26.5 million tons
demand.
Siswono said the problems in the rice supply are mainly in
management of distribution.
"The agriculture minister even sees that we have plenty of
supply, but Bulog still has problems with distribution
management," he was quoted as saying by the Kompas daily.
By importing the rice, the government would not boost farmers'
productivity, and would slow efforts to diversify the food
staple, forcing the nation to remain dependent on imports, he
said.
During former president Soeharto's 32-year rule, the
government's policy on rice was centered on providing the staple
at a low price through Bulog's imports and domestic rice
procurement.(das)