TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government claims that it has successfully reduced rice imports in 2016.
The Agriculture Ministry spokesman Agung Hendriadi said that high volume of rice import in the first quarter of 2016 was attributable to agreements carried over from the previous year.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show that the first quarter of 2016 saw rice import realization of 982,000 tons. Meanwhile, Indonesia continued to import rice from April to November, albeit on smaller volume of 17,000 tons to 38,000 tons.
“[Indonesia] did import rice in 2016; it was attributable to import decision in 2015, in September to December, to be exact, which include import recommendation of over 1 million tons that were carried out in the first quarter of 2016,” he told a press conference on Thursday at BPS office in Jakarta, as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia.
According to him, the success was made possible by rice cultivation management in the past couple of years in a bid to boost food production.
Sasmito Hadi Wibowo, BPS’s deputy for statistics distribution and services, said that rice imports between April and November were not carried out to meet national demand.
He explained that from January to October 2015, monthly small volume of rice imports was made to meet premium rice demand from Middle Eastern and Japanese restaurants. He, however, said that the government decided to import around 1.5 million tons of rice to bolster national rice stock.
The decision caused rice imports to jump in November 2015 to 318,920 tons and that of December 2015 to 291,890 tons. The increase continued until March 2016.
BISNIS.COM
