Rice stock enough until next year's elections

Rice stock enough until next year's elections

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's accumulated rice stock will be
enough to feed civil servants and Armed Forces personnel as well
as to stabilize domestic prices until next year's general
election, an official said yesterday.

Chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang
announced after meeting with President Soeharto that the agency's
domestic procurement in the 1996/1997 fiscal year, starting in
April, is expected to reach two million tons.

He explained that his agency had bought 100,000 tons of rice
domestically so far this year which made current rice stocks two
million tons, as compared with 1.8 million tons in February.

"So, our rice stock is enough until the 1997 general
election," Beddu said.

He said the current rice stock of two million tons is
sufficient until next year as local harvests have now returned to
normal and will peak in April and May.

Beddu said accumulated rice stock will reach four million tons
by the end of this year, of which some 1.8 million tons will be
used to cater to the needs of public servants and Armed Forces
personnel.

"We still have a carry-over of rice imports this year. We hope
there will be no imports in the 1996/1997 fiscal year," Beddu
said.

Indonesia, a significant rice producer, turned to imports in
late 1994 after adverse weather conditions hit domestic harvests.
The government put the purchases at two million tons in the
1995/1996 fiscal year.

Indonesia produced 49 million tons of unhusked rice last year,
compared with 46.4 million in 1994 and 48.14 million in 1993.

Beddu yesterday also reported on the country's plans to export
black sticky rice to a number of neighboring countries such as
Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Black sticky rice is used for making various traditional
snacks.

"We will export it to those countries because people there
need it to make traditional snacks made of sticky rice just like
we do here. And this kind of rice is not much grown in other
countries," Beddu said.

He said the volume of black sticky rice exports is still very
small. "This export is to encourage our farmers to grow this kind
of rice."

He said black sticky rice currently sells at Rp 1,300 (55 U.S.
cents) domestically. The price of this rice overseas ranges from
Rp 1,800 to Rp 1,900.

Inflation

As the domestic harvest is back to normal, Beddu said the
country's March inflation rate was expected to be lower than last
month's 1.71 percent.

"We expect the inflation rate in March will be very low,
helped by lower food prices," he said.

He explained that food prices declined by 2.03 percent in the
first three weeks of March, with the prices of rice falling 1.04
percent, meat 3.69 percent, fresh fish 2.1 percent, eggs and milk
1.09 percent, vegetables 7.87 percent and fruit 0.38 percent,
while the prices of canned fish was up 0.29 percent.

Food is a major component, constituting 33 percent, in monthly
calculations of Indonesia's consumer price index.

Other inflation components, such as clothing, housing and
services were also lower, Beddu said.

Beddu said the domestic price of cooking oil is currently
stable in the market, adding that Bulog will continue to help
stabilize the price.

He said his agency has succeeded in cutting cooking oil prices
to Rp 1,300 a kilo from Rp 1,450 last year. "We will continue to
stabilize its price in the future," he added. (rid)