VIVAnews - Indonesia's plan to export rice will be materialized in March. The readiness of the export will be finalized by the Trade Minister's approval.
"Hopefully, the [rice] export will be done in March or April the latest," said Director of the state logistic company Perum Bulog, Mustafa Abubakar, Jakarta, Wednesday, Feb. 25.
In 2008, the national husked rice production was 63 million tons, which is equal to 40 million tons of rice. "It's a 3-4 million tons surplus," Abubakar said.
Abubakar said that Bulog will only export the super rice variant. The plan is to export 100,000 tons of super rice. "Once we got the permit, we will immediately export it," he said.
The rice export destination countries are Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, and Philippines. The Bulog will directly obtain the rice from farmers.
Meanwhile for the medium rice variant, Bulog plans to export it in the third quarter of 2009. For medium rice, Malaysia and Timor Leste are the export destinations. "There will be one million tons of medium rice export," said Abubakar.
According to Abubakar, the price of super rice will range above US$1 per kilogram and higher prices for organic rice.
The permit for super rice export is on hold in the Trade Department, while medium rice export permit is still waiting confirmation from the Minister for Economy. "Medium rice export is very political, so we are waiting for a safer situation and besides, Indonesian rice consumption is still around 97 percent," added Abubakar.
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Translated by: Ariyantri E. Tarman
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