'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.