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Government's 2023 rice import projection disgruntles local farmers
The issue of imported versus locally produced rice is again creating a rift between the government and local farmers as the government aims to meet the deadline for finalizing its 2023 demand and supply planning.
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Rain clouds roll across the skies above a rice field in West Java on Dec. 17, 2007. (World Bank/Curt Carnemark)
G
overnment officials and farmers’ associations are at loggerheads on the ideal proportion of imported and locally grown rice in 2023, particularly in the commodity’s categories of specialty rice and rice for industrial use.
According to a copy of commodity balances received by The Jakarta Post on Sept. 30, the 2023 corporate demand for imported specialty rice and industrial rice is 214,965 tonnes and 792,655 tonnes, respectively.
For local consumption, businesses plan to import 61,267 tonnes of specialty rice and 9,686 tonnes of industrial rice.
The columns for general varieties of commercial rice, which include medium grain and premium rice, are blank.
Indonesian National Food Agency (NFA) chief Arief Prasetyo said that importing large amounts of specialty rice was one of the consequences of the recovering tourism sector. As hotels, restaurants and catering businesses had demands for specialty rice that could not be met through domestic production, it was “acceptable” to import certain types of rice.
Specialty rice includes varieties like basmati rice, which is traditionally grown on the Indian subcontinent, and jasmine rice like Thai Hom Mali, which originated in mainland Southeast Asia.
“If we don’t import, foreign tourists would complain if they found out that the Middle Eastern cuisine [served in Indonesia] are not authentic,” Arief told The Jakarta Post on Oct. 10, pointing out that commercial and specialty rice varieties had different uses.
