Indonesia: Domestic rice production estimated to reach 21 Mil MT in June

The Agriculture Ministry in Indonesia estimates that national rice production from January to June this year will reach 21 million tons or 30 percent of the target set at 58.1 million MT of dried hulled rice. Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto said here on Friday with production reaching the level he estimated there would be a surplus of four million tons if national consumption was around 16-17 million MT.

The harvests were still in progress in several regions and in some other regions replanting had already begun so that there would again be harvests in July and August. Regarding a delay in the 2006=2007 planting season that may threaten this year`s production, the minister said that it was on the contrary beneficial in terms of harvests.

With the planting season delayed by three months, harvests would not occur at the peak of the rainy season so that they would be good and they would also happen several times during the year. He however admitted the drought-related delay had caused the overall rice cultivation acreage to shrink by 300,000 hectares.

According to the minister, realization of planting areas reached 1.46 million hectares in February, up from the target of 1.21 million hectares. He said in March the target of planting areas was set at 923,470 hectares but the realization reached 987,900 hectares.

If there were enough rain in May to June, he was optimistic production would be like last year, moreover harvests were expected to be good in July-August. Regarding the relatively small volume of farmers` rice Bulog had so far bought up beause the price had exceeded the level set by the governmet, the minister said a field survey had shown that a lot of farmers` rice was being sold at below the standard price.