Indonesia ready to export rice

Thursday, 22 January 2009                                                                                                                                                                                       The Jakarta Post

YOGYAKARTA: Indonesia will no longer be reliant on imported rice this year after enjoying a rice surplus which allows the country to export rice instead.

President director of State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Mustofa Abubakar, said Wednesday that early this year Indonesia would export super quality rice while medium quality rice would be exported by mid year.

"We can export super quality rice without disrupting our national food security," he said at a seminar on Bulog's role in food security.

"The average export will be 10,000 to 20,000 tons of rice starting in February."

The markets for the super quality rice includes Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore and will be sold at US$1 to $2 per kilogram.

Based on a laboratory examination in Japan, Indonesian rice is competitive with that from Thailand and Vietnam.

As for the medium quality rice, Mustofa said it would depend on an evaluation at mid year.

"If the national food supply is safe, the rice will be exported to Malaysia, the Philippines and East Timor," he said.

"We are targeting to export 1 million tons of rice."