Soybean import policy reviewed

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government and state commodity regulator PT Bulog will revise the current import policy for soybeans as part of an effort to protect local farmers and open ways for becoming self-sufficient in producing the commodity.

Local soybean farmers have been under intense pressure from the unregulated import policy, which has caused soybean prices to fluctuate uncontrollably and has caused losses to the farmers, Bulog president Widjanarko Puspoyo explained.

"We should review the current policy (for soybeans). It is too unregulated, causing the price of the product to fluctuate. This condition has caused losses to domestic farmers," he said after meeting Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Monday.

Widjanarko said that aside from the price problem, the policy had also opened loopholes for some importers to commit dishonest practices following the unfavorable mechanism for importing soybeans, which was deemed to be lacking in transparency.

The government currently has in place an annual import quota for soybeans at between 900,000 tons and 1.2 million tons. But due to an apparent lack of transparency in the import procedures, most importers have been accused of violating that quota.

China and the United States are the main suppliers of soybeans to Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Local soybean demand is estimated to reach about 2.1 million tons this year, with domestic farmers only able to produce about 700,000 tons. Soybeans in Indonesia are mostly used to make tempeh (soy cakes) and tofu.

Based on the country's blueprint for agricultural development, soybeans -- along with rice, sugar, meat and corn -- are the five basic commodities that the government hopes to achieve self- sufficiency in by 2010.

Elsewhere, Widjanarko also said that Bulog would jointly set up some 1,000 hectares of rice fields in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam this year with the association of farmers and fishermen and state-owned seedling producer PT Sang Hyang Sri.

"The rice field development is aimed at fulfilling rice demand in Aceh. Bulog will buy all rice from the field at a reasonable price in order to protect local farmers," he said.

The field is expected to be able to produce some seven tons of rice per hectare, relatively higher compared to the normal yield of about 4.5 tons per hectare on average in the rest of the nation.

Aside from the project, Bulog is also trying to help the Aceh administration expand the availability of other rice fields as well as increasing their productivity.