Minister Of Trade Lutfi: I Guarantee There Will Be No Import Of Rice During The Great Harvest, As Long As The Stock At Bulog Is Safe
JAKARTA - The Minister of Trade (Minister of Trade) Muhammad Lutfi ensures that there is no import of rice when it enters the main harvest period. So, the price of rice in the market will be safe. He emphasized that the plan to import 1 million tons of rice is not to destroy the price of rice for farmers.
"I guarantee that there will be no imports during the main harvest season. And today there will be no imported rice that will destroy farmer prices, because nothing has been imported yet," he said in a virtual press conference, Friday, March 19.
Furthermore, the Trade Minister Lutfi said the government had never stated that domestic rice production was insufficient or excessive. But what is always emphasized is that Bulog must have a reserve stock or iron stock of 1 million to 1.5 million tons.
"The stock figure is the basic principle of the government that we have had for years. Then Bulog will hold the procurement both locally and internationally," he said.
Furthermore, Lutfi said the import he meant was a policy to fulfill Bulog's stock. According to him, this is precautionary considering the low absorption capacity of grain by Bulog in March, where the rainy season factors have an impact on the wetness of the grain.
Lutfi said, the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 24 of 2020 regulates the conditions for absorbing grain. One of them is the problem of the level of dryness or moisture content of the grain. Therefore, Bulog can only absorb 85 thousand tons of unhulled rice.
"So here, until March, only 85,000 have been absorbed, while in my imagination they should be able to absorb at least 400,000-500,000 tonnes per day. So because the situation is like that, this is a dynamic situation," he said.
Lutfi explained, currently wet rice, Bulog cannot buy, and farmers also have to deal directly with traders. However, traders also don't have dryers. Meanwhile, the wet rice when it is put into the rice milling will break and the quality is bad.
"Whose fault is this? There's nothing wrong. Bulog has regulations, traders have priority on how to buy farmer's grain, but I also have a reference," he explained.
Meanwhile, Lutfi said based on his calculations, Bulog had a final stock of 800 thousand, minus the import stock in 2018 of 300 thousand tons.
"This means that the stock does not reach 500 thousand tons, this is the lowest in the history of Bulog," he said.
Based on the projection of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), said Lutfi, this year's domestic rice production will be as good as last year. However, this is of course still predictive and the government needs to anticipate it.
Furthermore, said Lutfi, if in the end domestic rice procurement can meet Bulog's rice stock requirements, then rice imports will not need to be carried out.
"So we will see the harvest. If it is good, I have no problem we will not import it as long as Bulog's stock reaches 1 million," he explained.