Indonesia plans to export rice this year: Bulog chief

BULOG - JAKARTA. Indonesia plans to export rice this year so that State Logistics Agency (Bulog) can absorb more rice from farmers, although the country still imported about 2 million tons of rice, last year, an official has said.

Bulog president director Budi Waseso said in Jakarta on Monday that he had spoken with several ASEAN countries about importing rice from Indonesia.

“There are a number of countries that we have contacted and they are ready to buy rice from Indonesia,” Budi said during a hearing with House of Representatives’ Commission IV overseeing agriculture affairs, among others, as reported by The Jakarta Post.

He said rice exports were needed to optimize rice sales during the peak harvest season in April to May. “During peak harvest, we need to buy as much rice as possible for the interest of farmers. We need to export,” he added.

The’s government rice reserves at Bulog’s warehouses has reached 2.1 million tons, while the target of rice purchases from farmers in April was set at 1.8 tons.

Meanwhile, the capacity of Bulog’ warehouses reached 3.6 million tons and therefore, the oversupply was estimated to reach 300,000 tons during the harvest season, he added.

This year, Bulog only distributed 300,000 tons of rice to the poor because the government had distributed more assistance through the cashless food assistance program in the form of e-money that could be used to purchase food at designated kiosks.

In previous years, Bulog was responsible for distributing between 16 million tons and 1.7 million tons of rice to low-income families.