Bulog to import 1.23 million tons of rice

The government has signed a new contract with Vietnam to import rice, the Indonesian state-owned logistics company Bulog says.

“We have just signed another [contract to import] 250,000 tons [of rice] with Vietnam.

“This brings the total rice import to 1.23 million tons,” Bulog president director Sutarto Alimoeso said Thursday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

“According to our calculations, as of today there will be 1.42 million tons of rice,” Sutarto said.

The current total would be enough for the next six months, he said.

Yesterday, Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said the government planned to import 1.2 million tons of rice, which would be done in stages.

This December the government is scheduled to import 600,000 tons of rice, while the rest will be imported in January next year.

So far, 450,000 tons has been imported.