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Agriculture Ministry criticized for inaccurate info on corn
Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nastution has criticized the Agriculture Ministry for issuing inaccurate information about the country’s corn production.
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Workers fill sacks with corn at a Bulog warehouse in Surabaya on Jan. 24 before the commodity was distributed to markets. The corn was imported from Brazil.
(Antara/ Zabur Karuru)
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oordinating Economic Minister Darmin Natution has criticized the Agriculture Ministry for issuing inaccurate information about the country’s corn production.
Darmin said that in November 2018 the Agriculture Ministry announced the commodity's harvesting season would soon start.
At that time, the ministry only recommended 100,000 tons of corn be imported, but in early January corn stocks ran out, forcing the government to allow another 30,000 tons of corn to be imported.
Because of the rising cost of the commodity, the government has allowed another 150,000 tons of corn to be imported in the near future to meet the need for animal fodder.
“We had referred to information from the Agriculture Ministry that in January there was to have been a corn harvest, but the facts are different,” Darmin said recently as quoted by kompas.com. “Small- and medium-scale stockbreeders have cried for help because of the high price of fodder.”
Darmin said he had ordered state-owned logistics company Bulog and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry to check on the availability of corn on Java and the result was the discovery that the harvest would start in March in West Java and in April in East Java.
That is why, he added, the government decided to allow more corn to be imported based on the Bulog’s recommendation.
With the planned importation of 150,000 more tons of corn, the total import of the commodity since November 2018 would amount to 280,000 tons. (bbn)
