Government Wants To Import 1 Million Tons Of Rice, Faisal Basri: Just Fire The Ministers Who Like Importing

Indef's senior economist, Faisal Basri. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government's move to import 1 million tonnes has been strongly criticized by Senior Economist Faisal Basri. According to the economist from INDEF (Institute for Development of Economics and Finance), domestic rice production is still sufficient, so there is no need for a policy to import rice.

Previously known, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that the plan to import 1 million tons of rice was carried out to control the price of this food. The details, import 500 thousand tons for Government Rice Reserves (CBP) and 500 thousand tons according to the needs of Perum Bulog (Indonesia's National Food Logistics Agency).

Faisal Basri noted, there are two reasons why domestic rice production is still sufficient. The first is, according to BPS (Statistics Indonesia) data, the agricultural sector can still record positive growth, where the food crop subsector has a positive growth of 3.54 percent.

Second, said Faisal, BPS announced that the potential for rice production from January to April this year reached 14.54 million tons, an increase of 3.08 million tons. That is an increase of 26.84 percent compared to the same period last year.

"Not to mention, farmers will experience a major harvest in April-May. A sharp increase in production, especially in April-May. That is insight. There is still enough time to secure an increase in production by the end of this year", he said through an article on Faisal Basri's blog entitled "Mau Impor Beras Besar-besaran Lagi: Pemburuan Rente Lagi, Rente Lagi", quoted on Monday, March 15th.

Also, rice prices in Indonesia are relatively stable. Based on BPS data, rice prices have been stable at IDR 14,112 per kilogram (Kg) since 2019.

The stable price of rice also occurs at the milling level and the price of harvested Dry Unhulled Rice (GKP) at the farmer level. According to Faisal, the price of rice in Indonesia is also more stable than the price of rice in the international market, which refers to the price of rice in Thailand and Vietnam.

Faisal reminded that the rice import policy had the potential to make mistakes in 2018. At that time, the surge in imports throughout 2018 resulted in stocks controlled by the government for Government Rice Reserves (CBP) increasing by almost 4 million tons.

However, its distribution fell from 2.7 million tons to 1.9 million tons. As a result, rice stocks more than doubled from 0.9 million tonnes at the end of 2017 to 2 million tonnes at the end of 2018.

This condition also burdened Perum Bulog as the manager of the government rice reserves (CBP). The quality of the rice was also very poor at that time.

"Perum Bulog makes it overwhelmed to manage such a large stock. The quality of the rice it manages has decreased, some even become unfit for consumption. The cost of dead money has of course increased. Even more fundamentally, Bulog's ability to absorb rice from farmers is limited", he said.

Therefore, Faisal asked President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to take firm action against ministers who easily issue import policies. An improper import policy, according to him, only benefits a handful of people.

"Mr. President, just replace your ministers who are passionate about importing. They want to be easy, and prioritize value extraction, aka brokering that benefits a handful of people rather than value creation with creative and innovative policies that sow problem for many people", said Faisal.