Rice import storage irks Bulog

Rice import storage irks Bulog

By Prapti Widinugraheni

JAKARTA (JP): The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) says its
warehouses are well-prepared for the bumper rice harvest late
next month, but admits it is having difficulty storing rice
imports arriving at the country's main shipping ports.

Head of Bulog, Beddu Amang, said yesterday that rice imports
are currently still arriving at the country's main shipping ports
in Jakarta, Semarang in Central Java, Surabaya in East Java and
Medan in North Sumatra.

"We have enough warehouses to store the rice we will be buying
from farmers when the harvesting season comes...Our problem is
how to store the rice imports landing at the major ports," he
told reporters.

According to earlier news reports, vessels carrying Bulog's
goods, including rice imports, had been held up at Jakarta's
Tanjung Priok port for several days because the agency had failed
to prepare its warehouses.

The vessels were unable to berth and, as a result, caused port
congestion.

Reliable sources said that Bulog's storehouses are currently
packed with goods owned by the Goro wholesale store -- a
subsidiary of the Humpuss Group -- and were thus unable to
accommodate the rice imports.

According to Bisnis Indonesia daily yesterday, 19 vessels
carrying at least 220,000 tons of Bulog's goods, including rice
and sugar, were still causing problems at the Tanjung Priok port.

Beddu blamed the problems on the different arrival times of
the ships, which made it difficult for Bulog to arrange unloading
and transportation of the cargo to warehouses.

"The ships arrived at different times because they came from
six or seven different countries. It would have been much easier
if the imports came from a single country," he said.

The inflow of goods, he said, forced Bulog to rent a number of
additional warehouses.

Beddu said Bulog's warehouses across the country presently
have a total capacity of 3.5 million tons. About 50,000 tons of
the capacity are leased to private companies across the country.

In Jakarta, he said, the capacity of Bulog's warehouses,
including the additional ones rented by the agency, reach 380,000
tons. The agency itself owns a warehousing capacity of 250,000
tons.

Beddu refused to disclose the amount of rice imports so far,
but indicated that vessels carrying Bulog's goods will probably
continue to arrive until April.

According to sources at the Tanjung Priok port, until early
this month some 3.6 million tons of rice arrived through the
port.

Despite predictions of a bumper harvest next month, Beddu
insisted that rice imports are still needed to beef up
Indonesia's rice stocks.

He said that the imports, coming in at almost the same time as
the nationwide harvest, will not cause an oversupply of the grain
nor, in turn, cause a severe drop in domestic rice prices,
because there will be a constant outflow of the grain from
Bulog's warehouses.

Beddu said the agency's rice stock currently stands at two
million tons. In the upcoming harvesting season, Bulog may have
to buy some two million tons from farmers to keep prices from
falling below the floor prices, bringing the agency's total rice
stock to four million tons.

He calculated that Bulog will need 1.7 million tons for
routine allocations for civil servants and Armed Forces members
and 600,000 tons for market operations this year.

"This leaves a standing stock of 1.7 million tons, which is
quite a normal sum. There will be no oversupply," he said.

Beddu said that his office, assisted by village cooperatives
across the country, is prepared to buy from farmers all the rice
that is needed to keep prices from falling below the official
floor price in the upcoming harvesting season.

"We estimate to buy two million tons from farmers, but if we
have to buy more, we will," he said.

Bulog presently buys medium-quality rice from village
cooperatives at Rp 738 (32 U.S. cents) per kilogram and from
others at Rp 730 per kg.

The government has set the prices of harvest-dried unhusked
rice at Rp 330 per kg, storage-dried unhusked rice at Rp 385 per
kg and unhusked rice (fit for milling) at Rp 450 per kg. (pwn)