Indonesia plans to set 2024 rice import quota at 2 mln metric tons

Indonesia’s state food procurement company Bulog said on Monday the government is planning to set next year’s rice import quota at 2 million metric tons, down from this year’s quota of 3.8 million tons.

Those imports would depend on domestic supply and demand, however, Bulog’s corporate secretary Awaludin Iqbal said.

The Southeast Asian country also announced it would extend until June 2024 its monthly rice handout scheme, a programme that provides rice to 22 million lower income households to protect the poor from rising prices.

The programme was due to expire next month.

‘We decided to extend the programme considering the rice price has yet to drop,’ Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan told reporters on Monday.

The rising price was caused by drought linked to the El Nino weather pattern that has hit harvests.

President Joko Widodo previously said the price of rice has risen by 19.8% as of the end of October.

Indonesia’s rice imports in the January to September period were 1.79 million metric tons, with Bulog rice stock at 1.4 million metric tons as of the start of this month.

This article has been republished from Nasdaq