The Ministry Of Trade Has Issued An Approval For 1.6 Million Tons Of Rice Imports To Bulog

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has issued approval for an import permit of 1.6 million tons of rice this year to Perum Bulog. This additional import quota is a complement to the import permit of 2 million tons which has been processed first.

This was conveyed by the Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade Isy Karim at the Food Supply and Security Coordination Meeting Ahead of Fasting and Eid Al-Fitr, at the Kempinski Grand Ballroom, Jakarta, Monday, March 4.

"We have issued import approvals, first 2 million tons in 2024, and there is an additional 1.6 million tons of import approvals have been issued," said Isy.

Furthermore, Isy said as much as 500,000 tons of imported rice for the first batch had arrived in Indonesia. The rice entered from January to February 2024.

"From the Bulog Perum report, the realization was more than 500,000 tons in the first quarter," he said.

Regarding stock fulfillment, Isy emphasized that the government maintains government rice reserves (CBP) of 1.2 to 1.4 million tons. This CBP supply is intended as market intervention through market operations as well as to flush stock to warehouses.

Currently, continued Isy, the decline in rice prices has only occurred at the main market level. Meanwhile, at the traditional market level there has not been a significant change. Meanwhile, the price of premium rice has not yet decreased.

The main market has decreased but has not yet spread to traditional markets. Premium rice has not decreased, there has been an increase, but the increase is not as high as last week," he said.