Megawati Talks About Rice Imports: Our Country Is Very Rich, We Have To Think About Food Sovereignty

Megawati Soekarnoputri (DOK. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - PDIP Party Chairwoman, Megawati Sukarnoputri insinuated the government's policy of importing rice. Megawati assessed that food imports are actually unnecessary because Indonesia has various natural resources.

This was conveyed by her during the launch of the book Merawat Pertiwi which was broadcasted online on the PDI Perjuangan YouTube channel.

"Our country is very rich, so we shouldn't think about food security. But we have to think about food sovereignty", Megawati said in her speech, Wednesday, March 24.

The 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia said that food security and sovereignty are two different things. Because, if food security is concerned, the government will easily issue an import policy.

Meanwhile, food sovereignty means that Indonesia is capable of processing its own natural resources and exporting the products abroad.

"If our food is lacking, then we import it. But with food sovereignty, everything in our country that is edible, we process to the maximum and that is precisely that we can export these foodstuffs", said Megawati.

As previously reported, the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi explained that Logistics Agency's CBP stock had fallen below its psychological level and had the potential to reach the lowest figure in history if all ex-imported 2018 rice experienced a decline in quality.

Based on the data he received, currently the CBP stock managed by Logistics Agency is around 800.000 tons. However, around 300.000 tonnes of this stock is the remaining imported rice carried out in 2018 and has the potential to experience quality degradation and cannot be released to the market.

Thus, he estimates that the CBP stock that is feasible and safe to distribute is only 500.000 tonnes, even though the safe stock agreed by the government to maintain price stability in the market is 1 million tonnes. In addition, the Logistics Agency also has an obligation for market operations whose monthly demand reaches 80.000 tons or nearly 1 million tons a year.

"So Logistics Agency's stock of approximately 800.000 tons is reduced by 2018 import stock of 300.000, Logistics Agency's stock only, maybe not reaching 500.000 tons. This is one of the lowest stock conditions in Logistics Agency's history", Lutfi said in a press conference, Friday, March 19.