TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Trade Ministry has officially issued the permit to import 500,000 tons of rice which will be effective until February 28. The commodity will be imported from Vietnam and Thailand.

“We have issued the permit for 500,000 tons until February 28, 2018,” said Oke Nurwan, General Director of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade.

The government reasons that the rice import is done due to the increased of domestic rice price of above the highest Retail Price Terms (HET). The ministry set the selling price of medium-grade rice at Rp9,450 per kilogram in several regions such as Java Island, Lampung, South Sumatra, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Sulawesi.

Read: Govt Opens Rice Import Option

The import will be executed by the States Logistics Agency (Bulog), complying with Presidential Decree No. 48/2016. The government initially named state trading firm Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) as the importer.

Based on the records compiled by the Primary Market Monitoring System (SP2KP) of the Trade Ministry, the price of medium-grade rice rose to an average of Rp11,271 per kilogram on Monday, January 15, and continued to rise to Rp11,291 per kilogram the following day.

The government claims that the rice import will not affect local rice farmers. The imports will be used exclusively to strengthen the rice supply of state-run logistics firm Perum Bulog, which will be used to hold future rice market operations.

ANTARA