TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief Budi Waseso said the agency was eyeing the export market to distribute rice stock that is predicted to hit surplus in 2019.

According to him, Bulog warehouses, which boast a capacity of 3.6 million tons of rice, would likely be packed during the upcoming harvest season this year, considering the agency still stored a total of 2.1 million tons of rice.

Bulog, he explained, would receive excessive stock of rice up to 300,000 tons because the target of rice absorption reached 1.8 million tons. In addition, the implementation of the market operation is stagnant and below the daily target of 15,000 tons.

Budi Waseso opined that one of the indicators to immediately carry out export was when the Bulog storage was jam-packed. According to him, it is not a bizarre plan for the country to have export and import of rice at the same time.

Read: Bulog: Rice Stock Sufficient until July 2019

“Farmers should not fret about the full storage that we [Bulog] cannot absorb rice. We still receive [rice] and manage it by export, because we have been in touch with several ASEAN countries and they are ready to buy [rice] due to their needs,” he added.

Budi Waseso continued to say that the public should not be opposed to rice import because it was aimed at stabilizing rice prices in the country—as long as the import prices did not bring down farmers'.

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