RI to discuss buying rice from India

The government will discuss the possibility of buying rice from India next week as an alternative rice source for this year's imports, a minister says.

Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said on Wednesday in Jakarta that the government would talk about the rice imports with an Indian minister, who was scheduled to visit Indonesia on Oct. 4.

“India recently announced that they can export rice and an Indian minister will visit Indonesia on Oct. 4 and this [rice importation] will be one of the issues to be discussed,” she told reporters at her office.

Mari said that India would be one of Indonesia's alternative sources for rice imports besides Pakistan and Vietnam, after it emerged that Indonesia could cancel purchasing rice from the world's biggest rice exporter, Thailand.

Currently, Mari went on, State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and the Indonesian Embassy in Thailand were still talking about the issue with Thailand as the government had yet to receive an official statement about the cancellation of Indonesia's rice orders.

Indonesia, the world's third-largest rice consumer, had earlier committed to import 300,000 tons of rice from Thailand, from the total imports of 800,000 tons planned this year in a move to secure its domestic stockpile and control the rice price.

Thai Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong recently said it had canceled its plan to sell rice to Indonesia.