Indonesia expects rice production to rise 1.25 percent to 55.13 million tonnes on improving productivity, the state statistics bureau said on Monday. Last year, Indonesia produced 54.45 million tonnes of unmilled rice. The outlook is the second preliminary forecast of this year. Indonesia's statistics bureau (BPS) makes three projections on a quarterly basis every year.
The forecast is below the government's target of 58.18 million tonnes of unmilled rice in 2007. "The expected increase in rice output is due to improving productivity despite declining harvested areas," Pietojo, the bureau's deputy for economic statistics, told a news conference.
He said increasing productivity would take place in outer Java islands such as Sumatra and Kalimantan. The government has announced plans to import up to 1.5 million tonnes of rice this year to stabilise rice prices amid an expected drop in domestic rice production due to erratic weather. Indonesia has kept a rice imports ban by private traders in place since early 2004, aimed at combating smuggling that disrupts domestic prices of local rice - a staple food for the country's 220 million people.
The statistics bureau said corn production is expected to rise 7.24 percent to 12.45 million tonnes this year from 11.61 million tonnes in 2006 due to an increase in planted area and improving productivity. Soybean output is expected to fall 11.12 percent to 664,440 tonnes this year from 747,610 tonnes in 2006 due to a decrease in planted areas despite improving productivity.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.