The differences between rice production data and the real market situation have led to several classic problems surrounding the country’s most important source of nutrition. The problems include supply shortfalls and rising prices.

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) on Monday demanded the BPS speed up its data-credibility improvement.

“We never have accurate data for rice consumption and until now the BPS has yet to release their new survey methods. Please speed it up,” BPK senior official Rizal Djalil said.

Rizal, a former BPK chief, was speaking during a discussion on food security and imports that was attended by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.

Recently, the BPK released its three-year audit on ministries, including the Trade and Agriculture ministries. In both ministries the state auditor highlighted a mismatch between import volume and actual needs in the field.

Rizal said as long as there was valid data justifying rice imports, the BPK would not raise any issues. However, a report from 2015 to 2017 showed a mismatch between rice imports and the country’s rice consumption.

One of the findings was that until 2013, the government used an annual standard of rice consumption of 139.15 kilograms per capita, while the Food Security Agency (BKP) released a lower figure of 124.89 kg per capita in 2014 and 2015.

“Recently we decided to import an additional 500,000 tons of rice, but we don’t know how [the government] got those figures,” Rizal said, referring to the second import policy this year, issued by Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita last week.

Minister Amran spoke during the talk, skirting the issue of rice imports. He boasted of Indonesia’s recent achievements, which according to his ministry’s data included a 24 percent increase in various commodity exports this year, which he claimed was the highest in the last decade.

“Why do you guys [press] keep asking about imports? Please ask me about our exports and I urge the press to look at the agriculture sector beyond rice, because we have 400 commodities,” he said.

One of the commodities that achieved export success was corn, he said, with 500,000 tons exported from January to April this year, according to his office’s data.

Bambang Soesatyo, the speaker of the House of Representatives, concurred that inaccurate data on commodities, especially rice, was a major issue. Hence, he highlighted the need for proper data as soon as possible.

However, he acknowledged that after commodities data is addressed, the next problem lay with ministries as organizers, in this case the Trade and Agriculture ministries.

He questioned the claims of surpluses for some commodities, especially among the nine main commodities, locally known as Sembako, which are carbohydrate sources (rice, sago, corn), sugar, salt, animal protein (beef, chicken), cooking oil, milk, vegetables, eggs and cooking gas.

He suspected mismanagement was the culprit behind shortages and rising prices.

“Therefore, I ask the Trade Ministry and Agriculture Ministry to work together to address this matter,” he said.

Every time the debate on rice imports arise, the planned National Food Agency, mandated in Law No. 18/2012 on food is also brought up.

Bambang said the establishment of the agency was still uncertain as the government and the House were still discussing it. The law mandated the agency to be formed in 2015.

According to the law, the agency, under the oversight of the president, is expected to take control over food-related institutions.

Separately, BPS director of food crop, horticulture and plantation statistics Hermanto told The Jakarta Post that new rice production data using satellite methodology for better accuracy was incomplete.

“We have begun, but we need more time to see the results. Once it’s done, we will immediately publish it,” he said.

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