Rice imports may be cut by 50%

JAKARTA (JP): The country will be able to halve its huge rice imports next fiscal year if rice production meets the target, Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin has said.

"We can reduce our imports by 50 percent if our rice (unhusked) production could reach 52 million tons next fiscal year," he was quoted by Antara as saying in South Sumatra's capital Palembang on Saturday.

The unhusked rice could be processed into 31 million metric tons of milled rice. The country's rice consumption is expected to reach 32 million tons next year.

This year, domestic consumption is predicted at 31 million tons, while the country's unhusked rice production could only reach slightly over 46 million tons (28 million tons of milled rice) due to the poor harvests.

To make up for the shortage, the government plans to import as much as 4.1 million tons for the fiscal year ending in March.

The Central Bureau of Statistics in its latest report estimates that the country's unhusked rice production this year will reach 46.44 million tons, slightly higher than its earlier prediction of 46.29 million tons.

The figure is still 6 percent lower than the 49.38 million tons last year.

The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) earlier predicted that the country would have to import at least 3.42 million tons of rice in 1999/2000 fiscal year, beginning on April next year.

The agency said the figure could be higher if domestic supplies missed the target and the agency's domestic procurement was below one million tons.

Soleh said the government had conducted special efforts to increase the size of the rice cultivation areas in a bid to boost production.

"We are trying our best to sharply increase the next year's harvests."

He added that the ministry was also trying to increase the production of soybean and corn to reduce the country's dependency on imports. (gis)