Indonesia, which has imposed a ban on rice imports until June, may extend it until December if the crop harvested in April proves sufficient, a senior agriculture ministry official said. Delima Hasri Azahari, a director general from Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture, said late on Thursday that the ban, effective for a second year in a row, had helped raise domestic rice production.
"If we think that production from the harvest of April is enough, we can continue until the end of December," said Azahari, referring to the ban.
"This is the second year for us in which we have implemented a policy to limit rice imports. With this policy, we have experienced that our local production of rice is increasing," she told Reuters at a regional conference on agricultural negotiations in the World Trade Organisation.
She said the ban on commercial imports would remain even though Jakarta would allow rice imports for two provinces, Aceh and North Sumatra, to help tsunami victims.
Despite the ban, there were illegal rice imports of about 5,000 tonnes last year, she said.
Rice is a staple food for Indonesia's 220 million people. Milled rice output is estimated to be 33.5-34 million tonnes this year, compared with estimated consumption of around 31 million tonnes.
Indonesia was self-sufficient in rice in the 1980s, but became an importer when millions of hectares of rice fields were converted into industrial parks and housing complexes.
The US Department of Agriculture forecasts Indonesian 2004/2005 milled rice imports of 1 million tonnes, compared with 700,000 tonnes in 2003/2004 and 2.75 million tonnes the year before.
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