JAKARTA: Indonesia is looking into options for importing 1 million tons of rice from India next year, coordinating minister for food affairs Zulkifli Hasan said on Tuesday.

Indonesia’s rice output is estimated to fall 2.43% this year to 30.34 million metric tons, due to a delay in planting and harvest season amid longer dry weather in 2023, the statistics bureau said earlier this month.

Indonesia’s rice imports have jumped in the past two tears, reaching over 3 million metric tons each year.

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The Southeast Asian country aims to import up to 3.6 million tons of rice this year.

It also plans to open between 750,000 hectares and 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of new rice fields in 2025 to achieve President Prabowo Subianto’s target of food self-reliance.