Kadin Supports 500,000 Ton Rice Importation Government Program

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - The government through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has decided to open the rice import taps as much as 500 thousand tons. The rice is scheduled to start in late January 2018.

Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Indonesia, Rosan P. Roeslani said the government must have had calculations and assumptions why should be imported.

"The government already has a definite calculation to carry out a policy, and I believe the decision has gone through a deep study," Rosan said in Jakarta on Monday (15/1/2018).

According to Rosan, the problem of rice import should not be too much of a problem. "In the end it's end users who will enjoy," he explained.

Furthermore, he revealed, the government issued the policy would have counted numbers. "If we have to do it, we should keep the price stability," Rosan said.

On the other hand, Bhima Yudhistira, Bhima Yudhistira Institute for Economic Economy and Finance (Indef) Analyst said that the opportunity to open imported faucets proves that the government's data on rice surplus is not credible.

"There are issues of coordination miss also in internal Government between Minister of Agriculture and Bulog," said Bhima.

According to him, the government needs to see that the exchange rate of farmers in the last 1 year can be said stagnant because it is in the range 101-103.

While real wages of real laborers continue to fall indicates that the rate of inflation is higher than the increase in income received by farm laborers.

"This indicator of the welfare of farmers has worsened, especially imported rice," he concluded.