Indonesia’s Minister of Agriculture is insisting on continuing the current ban on rice imports until later this year in order to protect the domestic price of unhusked rice on projections that the country would produce sufficient rice to meet its own needs.

The ministry would propose maintaining the import ban policy at the upcoming meeting with the Ministry of Trade and state-owned commodity supply firm Perum Bulog, scheduled for later this month. Unhusked rice production this year was estimated to reach 53 million MT, more or less similar to last year. The amount is equivalent to 32 million MT of husked rice, while Indonesia's annual consumption is projected to be 31 million MT.