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2m tons of rice imports not my decision: Trade minister
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Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
T
rade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has appeared reluctant to comment on a statement made by state-owned logistics company Bulog president director Budi Waseaso, who criticized a plan to import 2 million tons of rice.
“Never mind. Don’t prolong [the debate],” Enggartiasto said when visiting a tempeh factory in West Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by tempo.co.
“The fact is that the decision to import 2 million tons of rice was made at a coordination meeting. It was the coordination meeting's decision, not mine.”
The minister was responding to a statement by Budi, who said Indonesia did not have to import rice through June 2019 as the country had enough stock.
Budi said Bulog’s warehouses currently had 2.4 million tons or rice, while another 400,000 tons of imported rice would arrive in October.
Budi estimated that Bulog would be managing up to 3 million tons of rice by year-end as the agency purchased 4,000 tons of unhusked rice from farmers every day. He added that Bulog might not need to release the imported rice to meet market demand.
Enggartiasto said the coordination meeting in April, attended by representatives of the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, the Trade Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry and Bulog, made the decision because domestic rice production could not meet market demand.
“The coordination meeting made the decision in accordance with a government regulation and a presidential regulation. I then issued the import recommendation,” Enggartiasto said. (bbn)
