Rice imports likely, despite better output

JAKARTA (JP): The government has predicted that the amount of rice produced in the country will grow this year but admits that imports will likely remain necessary in order to increase bufferstocks.

"According to the second projection of the Central Bureau of Statistics, this years' rice production is likely to grow by 3.5 percent instead of 2.1 percent as projected before," Secretary- General of the Ministry Agriculture Soetatwo Hadiwigeno told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The bureau said recently that Indonesia's rice production fell 3.2 percent to 46.64 million tons of unhusked rice -- the lowest level in 15 years -- last year from 48.18 million tons in 1993.

Last year's decline in output, which was caused mainly by a severe drought, forced the country to import a significant amount of rice for the first time in years.

Soetatwo said after the closing of the four-day Ministry of Agriculture workshop yesterday that rice imports will likely happen this year to increase the bufferstocks of the National Logistic Bureau (Bulog) for its market operations aimed at stabilizing the domestic market.

Official sources said recently that Bulog's bufferstocks fell to less than 200,000 tons earlier this year, before appointing Beddu Amang as its chairman to replace Ibrahim Hasan, who is also the food minister.

Beddu reported to the House of Representatives in a recent hearing that Bulog so far this year has managed to increase its bufferstocks of rice to around 1.2 million tons.

Beddu said that by the beginning of 1996, Indonesia will likely become self-sufficient in rice again.

Indonesia, formerly the biggest rice importer in the world, became self-sufficient in rice in 1984.

Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah yesterday closed the workshop meeting, which was attended by some 300 participants, including Ministry of Agriculture officials from the regency to national levels, as well as executives of state enterprises overseen by the ministry and local administration officials from Indonesia's 27 provinces.(31)