Professor Of IPB Says Indonesia's Food Conditions Are Safe Throughout 2022 Although Some Needs Must Be Fulfilled From Imports

JAKARTA - Professor of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Dwi Andreas said that Indonesia's food condition will be safe in 2022, although some of its needs must be met from imports.

"Food imports and the trade balance deficit are expected to increase compared to 2021. If the rice harvest is disrupted, rice prices will rise relatively high from August 2022 to January 2023," said Dwi Andreas in the CORE Media Discussion, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, July 27.

He said that Indonesia's food security was quite good as seen from the Indonesian food security index of 59.2 which puts Indonesia in 69th position out of 113 countries in 2021.

Rice production in the last 20 years has been relatively stable at around 54 million tons per year.

In 2022, the production of several food commodities will decline, such as wheat, which fell 1 percent from 778.3 million tons from the previous year to 770.3 million tons due to drought in the European Union, while the war between Russia and Ukraine disrupted its distribution.

Cereal production is also estimated to fall 0.6 percent from 2.80 billion tons to 2.79 billion tons in 2022. At the same time, world rice production is projected to decline 0.4 percent from 522.5 million tons to 520.5 million tons.

Crude grain production will also decline from 1.50 billion tons to 1.50 billion tons, down 0.5 percent in 2022.

At the same time, several food commodities experienced an increase in production, such as vegetable oil and soybeans, which caused world vegetable oil prices, including palm oil, to decline.

"Therefore, Indonesia's income from exports of palm oil and its products will decrease. Indonesia's exports and agricultural surplus will also be lower than 2021," he said.