S. Kalimantan imports rice

JAKARTA (JP): The South Kalimantan office of the National Logistics Agency has imported rice and sugar from Thailand and Vietnam to meet rising demand during the Ramadhan fasting month and for the Idul Fitri holidays next month, an official said yesterday.

The agency's provincial head of procurement, Tjasnoto Rahardjo, said in the province's capital Banjarmasin that his office had imported 2.3 million kilograms of sugar and 600 tons of rice from Thailand and 1,800 tons of rice from Vietnam.

The imports, he said, had increased his office's stocks of sugar to 3.3 million kg and rice to 18,000 tons, which would be enough for market operations and to meet the needs of civil servants and members of the Armed Forces for the next six months.

Rahardjo was reported by Antara as saying that his office usually procured 20 million kg of sugar from PT Peleihari Sugar Mill every grinding season, while rice was procured from South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and East Java.

Whenever there was a sugar shortage, the office procured it from East Java or imported it, he added. (10)