Indonesia considers importing 1 million tons of rice from India next year

INDONESIA is considering a plan to import 1 million metric tons of rice from India in 2025 to secure supply until its main harvest, Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan said after a meeting of food and agricultural officials on Tuesday (Oct 29).

Indonesia’s rice output is estimated to fall 2.43% this year to 30.34 million metric tons, due to a delay in planting and harvest season amid longer dry weather in 2023, the statistics bureau said earlier this month.

“We need an additional 1 million tons … so that we can go through February. Output in December-February period is usually lower,” Head of National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi told reporters after the meeting with Hasan.

Rice is a staple for most of Indonesia’s 280 million population and the main rice harvest typically starts in March.

Indonesia’s rice imports have jumped in the past two years, reaching over 3 million metric tons each year.

The South-east Asian country aims to import up to 3.6 million tons of rice this year. It also plans to open between 750,000 hectares and 1 million hectares of new rice fields in 2025 to achieve President Prabowo Subianto’s target of food self-reliance.

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The world’s largest rice exporter, India has removed the floor price for the export of non-basmati white rice this month to boost exports due to expectation of higher output and with stocks piling up since the 2023 export restrictions. REUTER