Indonesia Meets Rice Needs in 2008 as Output Gains (Update1)
By Yoga Rusmana and Naila Firdausi
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia produced 38.6 million metric tons of milled rice this year, a 5.5 percent gain from 2007 as more farmers used better seeds, enabling the region’s most populous country to meets its own needs for the staple.
“We have achieved self-sufficiency in rice this year, with output exceeding consumption” estimated at 37 million tons, said Bayu Krisnamurthi, deputy to the coordinating minister for economic affairs, and the official in charge of agriculture.
Meeting the self-sufficiency target has been a fundamental goal of government policy for decades to ensure that Indonesia is able to feed its 243 million people without having to turn to imports. Rice prices surged to a record earlier this year, stoking concern about possible shortages in the global market.
The stockpile of rice in warehouses run by Bulog, Indonesia’s state food company, stood at 1.4 million tons at the end of this year, Krisnamurthi told reporters today in Jakarta. Bulog bought a record 3.1 million tons from farmers this year to help stabilize prices and secure supplies to sell at subsidized rates to the country’s 19.1 million poorest households, he said.
Indonesia imported about 1.2 million tons of rice last year, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand. Rice output may increase to 40 million tons next year, which may allow exports of as much as 2 million tons, the most in at least 50 years, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said in October.
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