Indonesia plans to export premium quality rice to Japan, Malaysia, Brunei, China’s Hong Kong and East Timor this year following a record surplus of over 2.7 million tonnes of rice in mid-2008.
To begin with, Indonesia will export 100,000 tons of rice to Japan in March or April, Antara news agency quoted Mustafa Abubakar, Director of the National Logistics Agency, as saying.
"However the rice exports to Japan will be conducted every month. As a first step, we concentrate more on exporting super quality rice and then the medium rice if the national target to produce 40 million tonnes of hulled rice or 63 million tonnes of unhulled rice can be achieved in 2009," he said.
If the national target to produce 40 million tonnes of rice in 2009 can be achieved, there will be an overproduction of 3 - 4 million tonnes. "If possible, we can export at least 3 million tonnes of super and medium rice to Malaysia, Brunei and East Timor," he added.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) last year projected Indonesia's dry unhusked rice production at 59.88 million tonnes, up by 2.72 million tonnes due to an expansion of the area of cultivation by 237,610 hectares and an increase in the yield of the rice fields by 130 kg/hectare, said Antara.
In 2009 the surplus is expected to reach over 3 million tonnes.