A worker carries rice sacks at a warehouse of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) in Talumolo village, Gorontalo city, Gorontalo, on March 3, 2024. - Photo: Antara file
JAKARTA: The government has turned down a request for rice from Malaysia, with Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman explaining that Indonesia cannot export the grain at this time as it seeks to maintain domestic reserves.
Amran said Kuala Lumpur had requested to import rice from Indonesia due to insufficient supply that had pushed up prices in Malaysia.
“It was interesting, [Malaysia] asked earlier whether [they] could import rice from Indonesia,” he said during a press conference after a meeting with Malaysian Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu in Jakarta on Tuesday (April 22), Bisnis reported.
“I said, for the time being, we will maintain the [domestic] stocks. We will assess the climate [conditions first],” he said.
The government’s rice reserve stocks (CBP) at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) currently stand at 3.3 million tonnes, the minister said, adding that the target was to increase the level to 4 million tonnes in May.
A shortage of supply had driven prices up in Malaysia, Amran said, explaining that the country could only meet around 40 to 50 per cent of national demand.
Mohamad Sabu said that, though there was no official directive to import rice from Indonesia, the ministry would discuss the plan further.
“Not yet, but we will discuss,” he said during the same event, as reported by Bisnis, while conveying the country’s intention to work with Indonesia to increase its domestic rice production via agricultural technology exchange and training.
Amran said Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was scheduled to visit Indonesia on April 29 to discuss rice supplies.
In Japan, rice prices had also seen a sharp increase, soaring to between Rp 93,000 (US$5.52) and Rp 100,000 per kilogramme, he noted.
Rice prices in Japan have risen for 15 consecutive weeks despite government efforts to stabilise the market by releasing stockpiled supplies, local media The Mainichi reported on Tuesday.
Japan's agriculture ministry said that the average price for 5 kilogrammes of rice had reached 4,217 yen ($29.72) from April 7 to 13, The Mainichi reported, the highest since tracking began in March 2022, and up 2,139 yen from the same period last year.
Based on Statistics Indonesia’s (BPS) February Area Sample Framework Survey (KSA), total rice production in the January-May period is estimated to reach 34.47 million tonnes of unhusked rice (GKP).
That amounts to around 16.62 million tonnes of rice for public consumption produced in the same period, according to Indonesian Political Economy Association (AEPI) agriculture expert Khudori, as Bisnis reported, which marks an increase of 1.83 million tonnes, 12.4 per cent, from the same period last year.
Last year, annual rice production for public food consumption amounted to around 30.62 million tonnes, according to the BPS, a 1.54 per cent drop compared with 2023 production of 31.1 million tonnes. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
