Rice production increase expected

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's rice production will increase this year because the weather is expected to be more conducive for rice planting than last year, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said yesterday.

Rice production will likely rise by up to 7.5 percent from last year's output of 49.3 million tons of unhusked rice, he said.

"This year's production will be about 51 to 53 million tons of unhusked rice," Sjarifudin said after meeting with Soeharto at his residence on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta.

The minister said the rainy season had not reached all provinces across the country, including West Java and along the northern coast of Java.

Anticipating the delay in the planting season, the government has announced that it will import up to 2 millions tons of rice by March, mostly from Thailand, China, Vietnam, India and Pakistan.

The rice imports are expected to stabilize prices which have continued to fluctuate in big cities across the country.

"I hope the country's rice planting areas, which stood at seven million hectares during the 1997/1998 planting season, will increase to 11 million hectares this year," Sjarifudin said.

He said harvest time usually started in February and reached its peak in April, but this year it would likely not start until April.

Meanwhile, consumers complained yesterday that rice prices continued to rise despite the government's assurance on the adequacy of the rice stock.

"The quality of imported rice is so bad that even cheap food vendors don't use it," a restaurant owner said yesterday.

The minister said the government had also issued a new policy aimed at boosting domestic sugar production by giving more incentives to private companies to open sugar cane plantations outside Java.

"We hope that private sugar mills will provide more benefits for small sugar cane holders," he said without elaborating on the new policy.

Last year, national sugar production totaled 2.4 million tons. (prb)