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MoU on rice imports signed despite optimism on surplus
The government has signed an extension to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on rice imports from Vietnam to prevent domestic shortfalls in the event of disasters
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The government has signed an extension to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on rice imports from Vietnam to prevent domestic shortfalls in the event of disasters.
But the decision has raised the eyebrows of the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) saying the government seems to have lost confidence in local farmers and its own forecast of a rice surplus for 2009.
State logistics firm Perum Bulog president director Mustafa Abubakar said Monday the extension of the MoU would serve as a preventive measure.
"We have paddy planted in open fields. Anything like floods and plant diseases can possibly happen *to paddy fields* although Indonesia is having a surplus in rice production," he told The Jakarta Post.
"We'll import rice from Vietnam only if needed, when our national production is disrupted. We had a quota of 1 million tons of rice imports in our agreement with Vietnam last year, but we did not import anything at all," he said.
Last week, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and her Vietnamese counterpart signed the new MoU, applicable between 2010 and 2012, replacing the existing one signed on April 5, 2007, due to terminate by the end of this year.
"*The new MoU* serves as a standby *to our rice production*. There's no requirement for us to import *rice from Vietnam*," she told reporters Sunday in a conference.
"Exporting rice is still our ultimate goal someday," she added.
Mustafa said this year is expected to see a national rice production surplus of around 3 to 4 million tons if the Agriculture Ministry manages to meet its national production target of 40 million tons.
The Agriculture Ministry recorded a 2.34 million ton national rice surplus in 2008.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono previously said national rice production had continued to increase by 5 percent every year since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a food security program in 2007.
Commenting on the extension of the MoU, HKTI secretary general Rahmat Pambudi said it showed the government was unwilling to confirm and achieve its target to produce a rice surplus.
"On one hand, the government says the country is in rice surplus, and is assured to have a production increase of more than 3 percent - the largest ever since the New Order," he told the Post.
"But on the other hand, it says it's considering imports . by extending the MoU," he said.
