By: Nana Gunawan *)
Indonesia will again import large quantities of rice. After 2 million tons of rice imports have been realized, Indonesia is now preparing to import 3 million tons of rice again until 2024. President Joko Widodo has approved an allocation for rice imports of 1 million tons in 2023 and 2 million tons in 2024. These rice imports are needed for the rice food aid distribution program which has been extended until June 2024.
Based on calculations by the Logistics Agency (Bulog), rice reserves in warehouses will reach 1.2 million tons at the end of 2023. This number will be increased by 400 thousand tons of imported rice this year which will only arrive in January 2024. So, the total stock Rice is projected to reach 1.6 million tonnes. Of this amount, it will be used for 10 kg rice assistance to 21.3 million Beneficiary Families (KPM) in the period January to March 2024.
Apart from the food aid program, the Government’s rice reserves will also be disbursed for the market operations program, amounting to 300 thousand tons for distribution during the period from January to March. Meanwhile, for April to June 2024, Bulog will re-plan a strategy to distribute rice for food aid needs of 640 thousand tons.
Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Arief Prasetyo Adi, said that the rice harvest is expected to occur in April 2024. However, the harvest cannot be said to be 100 percent successful because it really depends on climate conditions after the impact of El Nino this year. Seeing this prediction, Arief Prasetyo Adi added that rice would not be sufficient if it only depended on the harvest period of local farmers.
For this reason, the Government is working hard to realize rice imports until next year so that people do not experience shortages. However, if production next April is large and the price is in line with the Government’s purchasing price, then Bulog will prioritize domestic absorption first.
By the end of 2023, Bulog is estimated to have imported rice with a total quantity of 2.9 million tonnes, with details of 300 thousand tonnes being an overflow from the 2022 assignment, 2 million tonnes being assigned in early 2023, and 600 thousand tonnes being part of an additional import assignment of 1.5 million tons by the end of 2023.
Last week, Indonesia received its first import of milled rice from Cambodia, amounting to 3,500 tons, which arrived in the city of Semarang. The Prime Minister (PM) of Cambodia, Hun Manet, said that sending imported rice would be very beneficial for both parties, both Indonesia and Cambodia itself. He also said that this rice import was the result of negotiations to open the Indonesian market in Cambodia.
Arief Prasetyo Adi said that there were a total of 140 containers containing 25 tons of rice/containers. As for the total amount of rice imports, samples have been taken for checking by the Indonesian Quarantine Agency to ensure aspects of food safety and quality.
On the other hand, apart from importing rice, the Minister of Agriculture, Andi Amran Sulaiman, said that the national rice production target is 35 million tons in 2024. This target is higher than last year’s target of only 31 million tons of rice. To achieve this target, his party is trying to accelerate planting, provide incentives for farmers, and reallocate the budget so that it is on target.
He added that the need for rice next year will increase significantly. For the rice aid program in 2024, it is estimated that the target will increase from 21.35 million KPM to 22.04 million KPM in the period January to June 2024. This number of KPM is based on data from the Targeting for the Acceleration of Elimination of Extreme Poverty from the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture.
In this period, Bapanas recorded that the total rice aid that would be disbursed was 1.32 million tons of rice. Meanwhile, the Government needs to provide 16.62 million rice per month to meet people’s consumption needs.
The Ministry of Agriculture has launched a national movement to accelerate rice planting in 10 provinces covering an area of 569,374 hectares (ha). Then, as of November 4 2023, the realized planting area reached 430,235 ha. So, the production of milled dry unhulled rice is estimated at 3 million tons or the equivalent of 1.5 million tons of rice. This movement is considered to be able to compensate for the decline in rice production estimated by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) at 650 thousand tons due to the impact of the El Nino drought.
The government is preparing continuity in the implementation of rice food aid that has been implemented so far. Rice food assistance is a manifestation of the Government’s concern for people in need. President Joko Widodo has also ordered that rice food aid be continued until June 2024. Both Bapanas and Bulog will of course continue to implement this policy to meet needs comprehensively.
With the various steps implemented by the Government, it is hoped that the public will not worry about stock shortages. Rice imports from other countries are also carried out to maintain food price stability and meet the food needs of the entire community so that they do not experience food shortages. For this reason, the public is encouraged to support Government programs in order to maintain rice food reserves, which is the main key to controlling the rate of inflation.
*) The author is an Economic Observer at the Pershada Institute.
