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Rice stocks 'low but enough', says Jokowi
Rice tip: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo (third right) hosts a luncheon with rice businesspeople at his office in Jakarta on Monday
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Rice tip: President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo (third right) hosts a luncheon with rice businesspeople at his office in Jakarta on Monday. Jokowi, whose administration has been struggling to rein in prices of basic commodities, called on his guests to put public good above profits.(Presidential Secretariat/Laily Rachev) (third right) hosts a luncheon with rice businesspeople at his office in Jakarta on Monday. Jokowi, whose administration has been struggling to rein in prices of basic commodities, called on his guests to put public good above profits.(Presidential Secretariat/Laily Rachev)
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span class="inline inline-center">Rice tip: President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (third right) hosts a luncheon with rice businesspeople at his office in Jakarta on Monday. Jokowi, whose administration has been struggling to rein in prices of basic commodities, called on his guests to put public good above profits.(Presidential Secretariat/Laily Rachev)
While acknowledging that Indonesia's rice stocks of 1.7 million tons are among the lowest in Asia, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has insisted they are enough to see out the year.
'Our [rice] stocks are very low if compared with other countries'. Do you know the volume of China's rice stocks? 40 million tons. The Philippines has how much? 2.5 million tons, even though their population is only 90 million,' Jokowi said during a lunch gathering with a number of rice millers and traders at the State Palace on Monday.
The President, who recently said Indonesia would not need to import rice despite the low stocks and a possible decline in production brought about by an extended dry season, said Indonesia's rice stocks would ideally exceed 10 million tons.
'I am optimistic that if farmers maintain production, our rice [stocks] will be abundant,' he said, before calling on farmers, rice traders, rice millers and all related parties to work hard to ensure optimal rice production and distribution.
The President and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have been divided over the need to import rice to cope with potential decline in production, which was initially projected to reach 45 million tons this year, a slight increase from 44.44 million tons in 2014.
Kalla previously stated that the government would import 1.5 million tons of rice in light of the devastating impact of El Niño, which has caused harvest failures in several rice-producing regions. The State Logistics Agency (Bulog), he added, was purchasing the rice from Thailand and Vietnam.
The Vice President also pledged not to repeat the mistake made by then president Soeharto in 1997 when he failed to respond to drought-induced shortages in rice production, leading to soaring rice prices and social unrest.
Bulog claimed to be optimistic that the current stock of 1.7 million tons of rice would be sufficient until December, although the agency also described the supply level of below 2 million tons as 'alarming'.
'Of course it's alarming, but it is up to the government to decide the next step,' Bulog corporate secretary Djoni Nur Ashari told The Jakarta Post. He denied that the agency lacked enough rice to carry out 'market operations', in which the agency balances rice prices by selling its reserves cheaply.
Meanwhile, agricultural experts advised the government to obtain more valid data on the country's price production so that it could act appropriately to anticipate a possible shortage of supply.
Bustanul Arifin of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economic think tank urged the government to be more open about the real situation and not to consider imports a disgrace. 'In an emergency situation like this, imports don't mean failure. Openness would support their policy credibility,' Bustanul said.
'Don't leave people guessing, questioning ' there will be severe consequences. The government will lose its credibility if it insists it won't import rice, then suddenly does,' he added.
The government, he suggested, would do no harm by offsetting a potential rice shortage with imports, preventing price increases between November and January.
Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) professor Dwi Andreas Santosa said that data accuracy was vital to proper policy-making.
He voiced concern over the accuracy of rice-production estimations, with a surplus of 10.5 million tons predicted by the Agriculture Ministry, without taking account into harvest failures brought about by drought.
'Any policy formulated has to be based on accurate data,' Dwi said.
He urged the government to organize data collection free from vested interests in view of the potentially disastrous consequences of miscalculations. (fsu)
