Indonesia May Import 300,000 Tons of Rice, First Bulk Purchase Since 2007

Indonesia, the world’s third-largest rice producer, may have to import 300,000 metric tons of the grain, the first bulk purchase since 2007, to meet an expected shortfall in government supplies, Bulog executives said. “Now our stockpiles are about 1.2 million metric tons and we should have 1.5 million tons in December,” Sutarto Alimoeso, president director at the state food company, told reporters in Jakarta today. “We are prepared to buy 300,000 tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam.”

Rice is Indonesia’s most important staple and the country has been self-sufficient for the last two years. Southeast Asia’s largest economy last imported white rice for consumption in 2007, shipping in about 1.2 million tons, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand. Bulog, which manages the government’s stockpiles, buys the crop from farmers during harvests and sells the grain later to help keep prices stable.
“We cannot buy sufficient supplies from farmers because longer-than-normal rains have reduced the yield, which led to a decline in output and quality,” Alimoeso said. Indonesia imports small amounts of speciality rice every year.
Bulog will continue to buy good-quality rice from farmers even as it imports, Alimoeso said. He met with traders and officials from Thailand and Vietnam last week, discussing the import plan.
Unhusked rice output may gain a less-than-targeted 1.2 percent to 65.15 million tons this year because of a decline in harvested area, Rusman Heriawan, head of the Central Statistics Office, said July 1. The government had targeted 3.5 percent growth to 66.7 million tons of rice.
A La Nina weather event has brought heavier-than-usual rainfall to parts of Australia and Asia this year, including Indonesia. The rains have been blamed by industry groups in the country for lower output or missed forecasts for cocoa, tin, palm oil and coal.

Source: Bloomberg