Subiakto responds to Agriculture Ministry

Subiakto responds to Agriculture Ministry

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises
Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya, in defending the clove trade monopoly,
expressed his doubts with the accuracy of the Ministry of
Agriculture's data on clove production and stocks.

"What are the bases of their calculations? Has the ministry
(of agriculture) been counting the trees one by one? To tell you
the truth, I think the data are unreliable," he was quoted by
Antara as saying.

Subiakto was responding to the results of a seminar on the
clove trade and farmer welfare on Tuesday which concluded that
the clove trade in Indonesia, monopolized by the Clove
Bufferstock and Marketing Management Company (BPPC), had failed
to help farmers and should therefore be dissolved.

The seminar, which was also attended by the Ministry of
Agriculture's production director, revealed a sharp difference in
figures on clove stocks and production which were issued by the
BPPC and the agricultural ministry.

The BPPC has recorded a general increase in clove stocks since
1991, while the ministry's data showed that until 1994, the
domestic clove stocks have been declining by 9.15 percent a year.

Asked whether the BPPC should be dissolved as the seminar had
suggested, Subiakto said such a move was unnecessary.

"If it were dissolved, clove prices might go lower and farmers
might lose even more," he said.

He added, however, that if the request came from the farmers,
the government might consider dissolving the agency.

"But you have to really ask the farmers because I am sure they
wouldn't want that," he said. (pwn)