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Indonesia may hold another tender in the next few months to
import more rice as production seems set to decline due to unfavorable
weather conditions.
Mustafa Abu Bakar, the director of Bulog (the state logistics agency),
said Wednesday in Jakarta that the government would decide in June
whether or not to import more rice.
Bulog estimates that domestic rice production will amount to only 1.5
million tons this year, much lower than the two million tons targeted
by the government.
"This is due to a delay in the onset of the harvest from January to
March," Mustafa told reporters following a meeting chaired by
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono in Jakarta.
Mustafa said the delay in the harvest was due to a prolonged dry season
and subsequent torrential monsoonal rains that inundated vast areas of
productive farmland.
The government has signed agreements with Thailand and Vietnam for the
supply of 1.5 million tons of rice, 25 percent of which was shipped
here between January and March.
The government has been trying to increase national rice production by
providing some 5,000 tons of free seeds to farmers. It has also
procured another 3,000 tons of seeds for the planting of new rice land
this year as part of the rice production expansion program.
In anticipation of the expected drought, a number of regions in East
Java were investigating ways of increasing water storage so as to
ensure adequate supplies for during the next planting season, Mustafa
added.
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