Govt to Import Rice If Necessary
9 May 2015 16:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government announced that it could not guarantee it would not import any rice, as inflation control due to the lack of rice supply would be more prioritized.
"We’re going to assess the condition until the end of June,” said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sofyan Djalil on Friday.
According to Sofyan, the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) would still try to collect up to 25,000 – 30,000 tons of rice in May with the available supply now reaching 1.3 million tons of rice.
He also said that the result of the harvest in the past two months was slightly below the target; as a result, the price of unhulled rice in the market is quite high.
However, Sofyan assured that Bulog would buy rice at any price although the price will drop later on.
"What’s important is that we control the inflation although we have to import rice should we’re short of rice supply," he said, adding that for the time being, national rice supply at Bulog is sufficient for the next four months.
ANDI RUSLI