VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

To control the price of rice, Ministry of Trade has conducted market operations in some regions prone to price hike since November 2017. Minister of Trade, Enggartiasto Lukita said that the price hike is caused with the scarcity of medium rice that also leads to price hike. At a media gathering held on Friday, January 12, Minister Enggar explained that market operations were not able to reduce the price of rice caused by lack of supply. To that end, the Ministry of Trade also agrees with the Association of Indonesian Retailers -Aprindo and rice distributors to sell premium rice at the highest retail price. Another attempt by the government is to import rice. This choice is taken because high price increases inflation rate and the rice contributes high to the inflation.

"...Import is not something taboo and basically in trading, there is import, and there is export. So, this is a contemporary solution until the price is stable and harvest time comes," Enggartiasto said.

Minister Enggar further explained, the type of imported rice is not grown in Indonesia or special rice and will enter the market as medium rice. The amount of rice to be imported is 500 thousand tons and comes from Thailand and Vietnam. The import rice will enter Indonesia before the harvest and the harvest outcome shall be purchased by Bulog with set price. (Skr)