Imported Rice Will be in Market between January, February: Govt
13 January 2018 13:42 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Trade Ministry granted the permission to import rice. The imported rice is of special quality with the amount of 500,000 tons.
Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita stated that the import permit was issued at the beginning of the month. "The rice will be received in January or February," he said in Jakarta on Friday, January 12.
Enggar revealed that the import is handled by state-owned Indonesian Trading Company (PPI). PPI will prepare their funds for the import without using State Budget funds.
Read: Bekasi Reserves 115 tons of Rice to Stabilize Rice Price
Rice import policy was taken to ensure sufficient supply. In addition, the imported rice is expected to push down the high price of rice. Enggar guarantees that companies working together in this import will not set a high selling price and will set the price at the range of Rp9,540.
In addition, he urged traders to stop hoarding rice since additional rice supplies will enter the market and bring down the price.
Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said that the import will not pose any influence on the national production. He claimed that 500,000 tons of rice is not a large amount. "That is a small amount. The national need per month is 2.5 million tons," he said. Such a stock is equal to six days of supply.
Furthermore, the imported rice is of a special kind. It is not produced domestically.
VINDRY FLORENTIN