Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – The National Logistics Agency ofIndonesia (Bulog) on November 6 announced that the country plans to set the 2024rice import quota at 2 million tonnes, a decrease from 3.8 million tonnes thisyear.
However, Bulog’s corporate secretary Awaludin Iqbal said thatthose imports will depend on domestic supply and demand.
On the same day, Indonesia also announced it will extend itsrice social assistance programme until June 2024. The programme which was dueto expire next month provides rice to 22 million lower income households toprotect the poor from rising prices.
Speaking to the media, Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasansaid that the Indonesian Government decided to extend the programme consideringthe rice price has yet to drop.
The rising price was caused by drought linked to the El Ninoweather pattern that has hit harvests.
Indonesia President Joko Widodo previously said the price ofrice has risen by 19.8% as of the end of October.
In the first nine months of this year, Indonesia imported 1.79 milliontonnes of rice, while Bulog's rice reserves remained at 1.4 million tonnes asof early November.
Previously, on November 3, Bulog announced that it had signed acontract to import 1 million tonnes of rice out of the total additional quotaof 1.5 million tonnes from four countries - Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan andMyanmar.
Mokhamad Suyamto, Director of Supply Chain and Public Servicesat Bulog, said this supplementary import aims to strengthen the government'srice stockpile until 2024.
According to Suyamto, so far this year, Bulog has distributed a total of 885,000 tonnes of rice to stabilise the marketand 641,000 tonnes of rice in a social assistance programme for the poor nationwidefrom September to November 2023./.
