Indonesia to import additional 1.6 mln tonnes of rice

Indonesia’s National Food Agency (Bapanas) announced that the government is preparing to import an additional 1.6 million tonnes of rice to fill the government's rice reserves managed by the national logistic agency (Bulog).

Bapanas Head Arief Prasetyo Adi stated at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Monday that the President asked that there be a minimum of 1.2 million tonnes in stock at Bulog, while actually he wanted it to be 3 million tonnes.

According to Adi, the government already has an import quota of 2 million tonnes of rice for the CBP stock. From the quota, the realisation of imported rice has only reached 500,000 tonnes.

Adi admitted that the current price of rice is still above 16,000 IDR (1.02 USD) per kilogram. This is because the price of harvested dry grain at the farmer level is still in the range of 8,000-8,600 IDR per kilogram in several areas.

He targets that the rice price will only be corrected when the harvest reaches 3.5 million tonnes. However, it takes up to three weeks for the harvested rice to be distributed to the community.

The official said that if the harvest is above 3.5 million tonnes, it usually takes two weeks to three weeks to 'convert' it into rice. At harvest, the grain is dried until distribution in approximately three weeks.

The government also assigned Bulog to sell rice at a maximum retail price to the public through the Food Supply and Price Stabilization programme of 250,000 tonnes.

Moreover, millers in several areas have been urged to conduct massive distribution of rice in five-kilogram packages to all retailers and traditional markets.