Rice stocks will last three months: Bulog

JAKARTA (JP): The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has said that its rice stocks currently stood at 2.1 million metric tons, or only enough to meet domestic demand for about three months.

Bulog's chairman, Beddu Amang, said Wednesday that the agency's existing stocks dropped from 2.5 million tons three weeks ago.

"The stocks will be enough to supply domestic demand for three to four months," he said.

But Beddu ruled out a possible rice shortage in the coming months even though Bulog was unlikely to meet its rice procurement target of 1 million tons for this year due to continued decline in the country's rice production caused by bad harvests.

He said that Bulog's procurement in the January to May period has only reached 85,000 tons, down sharply from 1.2 million tons in the same period last year.

"But don't worry, our stocks will increase because our rice imports continue to flow in from Thailand, China and Pakistan and we are still receiving rice aid from other countries," he said.

"Besides, the harvest season is not over yet, although the results were not as good as we expected," he added.

However, Reuters reported early this month that Thai rice exporters had stopped taking Indonesian letters of credit for rice orders due to Indonesia's uncertain situation.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association's president, Vorapong Pichpongsa, said: "The situation in the country raises a lot of questions on risks which we are not ready to take."

Beddu said the most important job for Bulog now is to ensure smooth distribution of important commodities, which were hampered by massive riots in Jakarta two weeks ago.

Bulog spokesman Masjkur Sulaiman said yesterday that his agency had continued its market operations throughout the city in an effort to supply enough essential commodities to the market at reasonable prices.

He admitted that the recent riots, during which many stores, supermarkets and shopping centers throughout the capital were damaged and burned, had disturbed distribution of commodities, which has resulted in soaring prices.

"We are focusing our market operations in traditional market throughout the city. People can buy unlimited amounts of rice at Rp 1,200 per kilogram in our market operation. So don't worry, we will do our best to secure an adequate supply of important commodities," Masjkur said.

Bulog lost its monopoly to import and distribute wheat, wheat flour, soybeans and sugar from Feb. 1 under the economic reform package agreed to with the International Monetary Fund.

But under a supplementary memorandum signed in March, the fund agreed to maintain Bulog's presence in markets outside of rice because the private sector has yet to replace Bulog's role in importing and distributing basic commodities. (gis)