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52152
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 08:04
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News Focus: GOVT'S DECISION ON RICE EXPORTS DRAWS MIXED REACTIONS
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, March 24 (ANTARA) - The government's decision to export best-quality rice has drawn mixed reactions in the country.
Hendri Saparin, the Director of Econit Advisory Group, in an interview with Antara in Jakarta Tuesday said that the government's decision to export rice was believed to be rahter premature without considering its negative impact on the national rice supply, and triggering increasing rice smuggling.
According to Hendri Saparin, the decision to export special quality rice was actually correct on one the side, in view of the high demand for the commodity on the world market, but on the other side, the government had been suggested to exercise more caution to the policy, as the rice is one of the sensitive commodities produced and distributed under special arrangements.
Rice is very sensitive to climate change not only in Indonesia but other parts of the world as well.
The trade ministry plans to issue a permit for the export of 266,000 tons of best quality rice in the April-September 2009 period. The export of 100,000 tons of rice will be entrusted to the National Logistic Agency (Bulog), while the rest will be handled by the private businesses.
In her view, the government is still facing difficulties in controlling rice exports even of primary variety rice at the time when there was a must to safeguard food production for food security.
"Being able to export rice is a good achievement, but it should refer to the volume of rice produced compared to that of people's consumption of rice within a certain period," she said.
She was also of the opinion that the government's data were still sketchy. The Agriculture Ministry had reported higher rice production, while according to the trade ministry, there had been no problem in the export of the commodity.
"At the time when a number of countries are suffering from a decline in rice production including Indonesia due to protracted floods, it is difficult to imagine rice overproduction," she said.
"Granting a permit for the export of special quality rice is okay, but the import of low quality rice had been reportedly taking place," she said, adding that if the export permit was also granted to private businesses, it was not impossible that rice smuggling would become rampant in the hope of gaining a profit margin between the prices of imported rice and rice exports .
Saparini even saw that the policy on rice export was only based on self-reliance, which was actually against the national spirit to improve the life of the people, as it has entered the political domain.
In response to Saparini's remarks, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Food and Marine Affairs Bayu Krisnamurthi said recently that the Indonesian government's plan to export rice to some countries would not disrupt domestic food stability, as the volume of rice to be exported is small and limited to high quality rice only.
"Especially that the rice to be exported in the beginning reached only 100,000 tons of super quality rice, while the total production of Indonesia's unhusked rice reached more than 63 million tons. It is just a very small portion of the country's rice supply for exports," he said
Until now, the plan to export high quality rice has yet to be realized because the government has first to observe the condition of the domestic market in addition to adhering to cautious principles of export mechanism.
A prediction on a decline in domestic rice supply compared to last year's production, according to him, was only linked to certain harvests and investment problems in the agriculture sector in the future.
Earlier, head of the central bureau of statistics (BPS) Rusman Heriawan said that the production of rice in 2009 was predicted to be slightly higher than that in 2008 and hence Indonesia will remain self-sufficient in the commodity this year.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) has also predicted that Indonesia's unhusked rice production this year would reach 60.93 million tons.
"We have estimated that Indonesia's unhusked rice production this year would reach 60.93 million tons," Rusman Heriawan said earlier this week.
He said compared with last year, this year's production would increase by 1.13 percent or 0.68 million tons. "Therefore, the government's plan to export rice is still reasonable," he added.
Heriawan said rice production would increase in several provinces, including West Java, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Central Java, North Sumatra and Riau.
BPS had also put the provisional figure of the country's rice production in 2008 at 60.25 million tons or an increase of about 5.41 percent from the previous year.
The increase in rice production was made possible by the increase in the total area of rice fields harvested by 1.33 percent to 161,520 hectares. This increased production by 190 kg per hectare or about 4.04 percent.
In the meantime, Mustafa Abubakar, the Director of the National Logistics Agency, said last week that after a price production surplus of over 2.7 million tons 2008, Indonesia this year would start exporting super quality rice to Japan, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong and Timor Leste.
In the beginning, Indonesia will export 100,000 tons of super rice to Japan per year in March or April.
"However the rice exports to Japan will be conducted every month. As a first step, we concentrate more on exporting super quality rice, and then the medium quality rice if the national target to produce 40 million tons of hulled rice or 63 million tons of unhusked rice can be achieved in 2009," he said.
If the national target to produce 40 million tons of rice in 2009 can be achieved, there will be an overproduction of 3 to 4 million tons. "If possible, we will export at least 3 million tons of super and medium quality rice to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, East Timor," he said.
Rice is classified as super quality rice, if the broken rice reaches 0 to 5 percent. It can be either Cianjur, Pandan Wangi, Padi Mulia or aromatic rice. In the meantime, broken medium rice reached five to ten percent.
In the meantime, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said that last year Indonesia had no intention to export the commodity in large quantities, although many countries had asked Indonesia for the staple.
But, the minister said the government would not impose a ban on rice exports, but merely limit the volume and type of the rice export.
The rice surplus will be handed over to the National Logistics Agency for storage.
In Indonesia, rice plays an important role because 97 percent of its population mainly consumed rice as apparent in the ratio of rice consumed by an individual in Indonesia.
Jakarta, March 24 (ANTARA) - The government's decision to export best-quality rice has drawn mixed reactions in the country.
Hendri Saparin, the Director of Econit Advisory Group, in an interview with Antara in Jakarta Tuesday said that the government's decision to export rice was believed to be rahter premature without considering its negative impact on the national rice supply, and triggering increasing rice smuggling.
According to Hendri Saparin, the decision to export special quality rice was actually correct on one the side, in view of the high demand for the commodity on the world market, but on the other side, the government had been suggested to exercise more caution to the policy, as the rice is one of the sensitive commodities produced and distributed under special arrangements.
Rice is very sensitive to climate change not only in Indonesia but other parts of the world as well.
The trade ministry plans to issue a permit for the export of 266,000 tons of best quality rice in the April-September 2009 period. The export of 100,000 tons of rice will be entrusted to the National Logistic Agency (Bulog), while the rest will be handled by the private businesses.
In her view, the government is still facing difficulties in controlling rice exports even of primary variety rice at the time when there was a must to safeguard food production for food security.
"Being able to export rice is a good achievement, but it should refer to the volume of rice produced compared to that of people's consumption of rice within a certain period," she said.
She was also of the opinion that the government's data were still sketchy. The Agriculture Ministry had reported higher rice production, while according to the trade ministry, there had been no problem in the export of the commodity.
"At the time when a number of countries are suffering from a decline in rice production including Indonesia due to protracted floods, it is difficult to imagine rice overproduction," she said.
"Granting a permit for the export of special quality rice is okay, but the import of low quality rice had been reportedly taking place," she said, adding that if the export permit was also granted to private businesses, it was not impossible that rice smuggling would become rampant in the hope of gaining a profit margin between the prices of imported rice and rice exports .
Saparini even saw that the policy on rice export was only based on self-reliance, which was actually against the national spirit to improve the life of the people, as it has entered the political domain.
In response to Saparini's remarks, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Food and Marine Affairs Bayu Krisnamurthi said recently that the Indonesian government's plan to export rice to some countries would not disrupt domestic food stability, as the volume of rice to be exported is small and limited to high quality rice only.
"Especially that the rice to be exported in the beginning reached only 100,000 tons of super quality rice, while the total production of Indonesia's unhusked rice reached more than 63 million tons. It is just a very small portion of the country's rice supply for exports," he said
Until now, the plan to export high quality rice has yet to be realized because the government has first to observe the condition of the domestic market in addition to adhering to cautious principles of export mechanism.
A prediction on a decline in domestic rice supply compared to last year's production, according to him, was only linked to certain harvests and investment problems in the agriculture sector in the future.
Earlier, head of the central bureau of statistics (BPS) Rusman Heriawan said that the production of rice in 2009 was predicted to be slightly higher than that in 2008 and hence Indonesia will remain self-sufficient in the commodity this year.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) has also predicted that Indonesia's unhusked rice production this year would reach 60.93 million tons.
"We have estimated that Indonesia's unhusked rice production this year would reach 60.93 million tons," Rusman Heriawan said earlier this week.
He said compared with last year, this year's production would increase by 1.13 percent or 0.68 million tons. "Therefore, the government's plan to export rice is still reasonable," he added.
Heriawan said rice production would increase in several provinces, including West Java, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Central Java, North Sumatra and Riau.
BPS had also put the provisional figure of the country's rice production in 2008 at 60.25 million tons or an increase of about 5.41 percent from the previous year.
The increase in rice production was made possible by the increase in the total area of rice fields harvested by 1.33 percent to 161,520 hectares. This increased production by 190 kg per hectare or about 4.04 percent.
In the meantime, Mustafa Abubakar, the Director of the National Logistics Agency, said last week that after a price production surplus of over 2.7 million tons 2008, Indonesia this year would start exporting super quality rice to Japan, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong and Timor Leste.
In the beginning, Indonesia will export 100,000 tons of super rice to Japan per year in March or April.
"However the rice exports to Japan will be conducted every month. As a first step, we concentrate more on exporting super quality rice, and then the medium quality rice if the national target to produce 40 million tons of hulled rice or 63 million tons of unhusked rice can be achieved in 2009," he said.
If the national target to produce 40 million tons of rice in 2009 can be achieved, there will be an overproduction of 3 to 4 million tons. "If possible, we will export at least 3 million tons of super and medium quality rice to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, East Timor," he said.
Rice is classified as super quality rice, if the broken rice reaches 0 to 5 percent. It can be either Cianjur, Pandan Wangi, Padi Mulia or aromatic rice. In the meantime, broken medium rice reached five to ten percent.
In the meantime, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said that last year Indonesia had no intention to export the commodity in large quantities, although many countries had asked Indonesia for the staple.
But, the minister said the government would not impose a ban on rice exports, but merely limit the volume and type of the rice export.
The rice surplus will be handed over to the National Logistics Agency for storage.
In Indonesia, rice plays an important role because 97 percent of its population mainly consumed rice as apparent in the ratio of rice consumed by an individual in Indonesia.
