'Rice imports set to be lower this year'

'Rice imports set to be lower this year'

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia expects lower rice imports this
year due to forecasts of a good domestic crop, a senior
Agriculture Ministry official said yesterday.

"We are successfully producing rice in the dry upland
areas...there will be less demand for importation," Soetatwo
Hadiwigeno, the ministry's secretary-general, told reporters at
the ASEAN agriculture ministers' meeting in Singapore.

Indonesia imported rice last year, mainly from Thailand and
Vietnam, for the first time in 10 years due to prolonged drought.

He gave no import figures for 1994 but some regional rice
traders said Indonesia took about 950,000 tons last year.

However, traders expect Indonesia's import commitments to
rise, projecting this year's imports at 2.2 million tons, of
which 1.2 million had been shipped, and another 1.5 million tons
could be imported in 1996.

Asked by reporters on Indonesia's rice import plans,
Hadiwigeno said: "Import is one thing that we sometimes have to
do.

"It is dependent on how much we can buy domestically for the
food security reserves. If Bulog (Indonesia's state commodities
regulator) can procure sufficiently from domestic sources for
security reserves, then the need (for imports) will be much
smaller," he said.