Ombudsman Asks Coordinating Minister Airlangga To Hold A Meeting To Postpone Plans For Rice Import

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Twitter @airlangga_hrt)

JAKARTA - The plan to import rice that will be carried out by the Ministry of Trade this year is becoming a polemic. The Indonesian Ombudsman assesses Indonesia's current national rice stock is still relatively safe. According to him, there is no need to import 1 million tonnes of rice in the near future.

Indonesian Ombudsman member Yeka Hendra Fatika said that his party could not prohibit the government from importing rice. However, the Ombudsman requested that this plan be carefully reviewed before a decision was finally made.

According to Hendra, the decision to import rice must be supported by a number of valid data. This is because this commodity has a broad impact from an economic, social, and political perspective. Therefore, Hendra appealed to the government, in this case Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, to examine the crop yields before choosing the rice import option.

"The Ombudsman asked the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy to hold a national coordination meeting to postpone the import decision, not ban imports, to wait for the development of Logistics Agency's harvest and procurement at least until early May 2021", he said in a virtual press conference, Wednesday, March 24.

Previously, Hendra said, his party had visited the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) to ask for information regarding the national rice stock which was considered to be a cause for concern due to the lack of distribution.

Based on data from the Ministry of Trade, the number of rice stocks owned by Perum Logistics Agency in mid-March 2021 reached around 883.585 thousand tons. With details of 859.877 thousand tons of government rice reserves (CBP), 23.700 tons of commercial rice stocks.

Of the total CBP of around 859.000 tonnes, said Hendra, there is a potential decline in the quality of rice stock of around 400.000 tonnes. So that the rice stock that is fit for consumption there is less than 500.000 tons or about 20 percent of the national average monthly rice requirement of around 2.5 million tons.

Even so, Hendra reminded that rice stocks were not only stored in the warehouse owned by Logistics Agency. Still referring to the Ministry of Trade's data as of February 2021, the stock of rice in the people's food barns is available at 6.3 thousand tons.

Meanwhile, stocks at the Cipinang Rice Main Market (PIBC) reached around 30.6 thousand tons, hotels, restaurants, and cafes (horeka) were 260.2 thousand tons, and in households 3.2 million tons. If you add up, the total national rice stock is almost 6 million tons.

Therefore, said Hendra, domestic rice stocks are in adequate condition. Even the stock of rice will exceed demand because it will enter the main harvest season. Thus, the national rice stock until April 2021 is estimated to reach 14.54 million tons.

Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the potential production for the January to April 2021 period is estimated to increase by 3.08 million tons or 26.84 percent compared to last year's 11.46 million tons.

Meanwhile, the potential area for rice harvest between January to April 2021 reaches 4.86 million hectares. An increase of around 1.02 million hectares or 26.53 percent when compared from January to April 2020 of 3.84 million hectares.

Previously, the Governments of Indonesia and Thailand would sign an MoU for the sale and purchase of Thai rice totaling 1 million tons by the end of March 2021. The issue of rice imports made matters worse because the harvest season was approaching and farmers' yields were less than optimal.