Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A senior minister says the government will continue securing the supply and distribution of rice in Greater Jakarta to avert possible price surges due to the recent flooding in the capital.
""The price of rice in Jakarta has increased because of the floods, but we have been able to keep it in check,"" Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono told reporters Wednesday after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla to discuss the matter.
""We will continue to do so by increasing supplies and the distribution of subsidized rice to the poor. We will double the usual amount, and we will supply as much as is needed.""
These efforts will continue at least until the harvest in March, Boediono said.
Supplies would be bolstered by imported rice, Boediono further said, which would amount to 138,000 tons this month, and another 350,000 tons in March.
The government had previously decided to import at least 500,000 tons of rice to secure stocks of the country's staple foodstuff, and said it might import more if required over the course of the year.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said that supplies would be further bolstered by Indonesia's own rice production during the harvest between March and May, which is expected to produce a surplus of 1.7 million tons from an expected 4.3-million tons to be harvested in March, and a surplus of 3.3 million tons from the 5.9 million tons expected to be harvested in April.
""Some harvesting may also begin in February, but there will still be a deficit of 370,000 tons (during the month),"" he explained.
Anton also said that natural disasters last year had resulted in 135,115 hectares of paddy fields being inundated and 35,124 hectares being struck by drought. This compared to 177,794 hectares of flooded and 48,895 hectares of drought-stricken fields in the previous year.
The government is targeting production of 58.1 million tons of unhusked rice, and 32.9 million tons of husked rice this year, up 3.5 million tons and 2 million tons respectively from last year.
On rice distribution, Boediono said the government would work together with retailers, distributors and major traders.
Separately, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that the government would ask suppliers not to hesitate in sending shipments of goods to Jakarta as it recovered from the flooding. This was necessary, she said, in order to ensure adequate stocks of essential supplies in the capital.
The government's efforts to secure supplies are also intended to ward off any uptick in consumer prices. Rising rice prices have threatened the deceleration of inflation over the past two months. With Jakarta still accounting for a large portion of the country's economy, any price volatility in the capital will be reflected in the overall inflation rate.
Bank Indonesia Senior Deputy Governor Miranda S. Goeltom said that while the impact of the flooding on inflation would not be significant, there would nevertheless definitely be an impact.
Inflation in January stood at 1.04 percent month-on-month and 6.26 percent on-year, down from 1.21 percent and 6.6 percent respectively in December. When similar major flooding hit Jakarta in February, 2002, inflation rose to a monthly level of 1.5 percent and a year-on-year level of 15.1 percent, compared to 1.9 percent and 14.4 percent the previous January.
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