TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Winarno Tohir, Chairman of the Kontak Tani Nelayan, an association of farmers and fishermen, reminded the government to anticipate the fluctuation of rice price. The reminder was made in response to the decision made by the Thailand government to cancel the selling of 300,000 tonnes of rice to Indonesia, which had been initially agreed upon. “It has a major impact especially on domestic rice price. This is dangerous,” said Winarno on Tuesday in Jakarta. Winarno estimated that rice price will rise to an average of Rp8,500 to Rp9,000 per kilogram. According to Winarno that the price of dry milled grain from the farmers has reached Rp4,500 per kilogram. The cancellation of Thai rice exports can result in price increase of dry milled grain to Rp5,000 per kilogram. As such will cause rice price to soar. The government regretted the Thai government’s decision to cancel on selling rice to Indonesia especially if the cancellation was based on the reason that the deal was made with the previous government. “An agreement, especially commercial contract, cannot be cancelled just like that,” said Deddy Saleh, the Trade Ministry’s Foreign Trade director-general. EKA UTAMI | ROSALINA | BOBBY CHANDRA