Bulog Boss Budi Waseso: We Have Not Imported Rice Since 2018, If There Is It, It Is Private

JAKARTA - The plan to import 1 million tons of rice has resulted in a polemic. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) finally decided to cancel the plan until June 2021. Jokowi also said that Indonesia had not imported for the past three years.

However, unfortunately Jokowi's statement slightly contradicts the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data report. Based on BPS data, Indonesia has always imported rice from 2000 to 2019.

Responding to this, the President Director of Bulog Budi Waseso (Buwas) said that his party had never imported rice for public consumption since three years ago.

"Like what was said by our President, yesterday he said that for three years we have never imported. Indeed, Bulog has never imported it in the past three years," he said in a virtual press conference, Monday, March 29.

Even so, Buwas, his nickname, does not deny the BPS data which shows that Indonesia will continue to import in 2019. However, he stressed, this rice is special. That is, it is only distributed in a limited manner and not for the consumption of the wider community.

"It is not Bulog that imports but private sector, according to their needs. So there is no general imported rice from other countries imported into Indonesia, I need to convey this. So that until today, Bulog has not carried out imports," he explained.

Launching BPS data, Indonesia in 2019 was recorded as having imported rice as much as 444,508 tons worth US $ 184.2 million. That number is a far cry from the 2018 rice import data, where the Indonesian government imported 2,253,824 tons of rice worth US $ 1.037 billion.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) opened his voice on this year's rice import polemic. Jokowi also revealed that Indonesia had not imported rice for almost three years.

"I assure you, until June 2021 there is no imported rice entering our country, Indonesia. We know, we have not imported rice for nearly three years," he said as quoted from YouTube's Presidential Secretariat, Friday, March 26.

Furthermore, Jokowi admitted that currently there are MoUs with Thailand and Vietnam. However, the cooperation to import rice from Thailand and Vietnam is just a precaution, given the pandemic situation is full of uncertainty.