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| Some 50,000 tonnes of rice from Viet Nam and Thailand will enter Indonesia through Dumai Port in Riau Province early next year. Photo VNA |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Some 50,000 tonnes of rice from Viet Nam and Thailand will enter Indonesia through Dumai Port in Riau Province early next year.
This was reported by Indonesia News Agency Antara, which quoted Titov Agus Sabelia, Head of Dumai Office of the State Logistics Board.
Indonesia had earlier negotiated with Viet Nam to import one million tonnes of rice over several phases.
Agus said his board would soon receive 20,000 tonnes of imported rice.
"Some 50,000 tonnes of imported rice will enter Dumai Port in March 2016. In the first phase, 20,000 tonnes will arrive," Agus told Antara on November 13.
He said the Indonesian Government had decided to import rice to maintain supply and prices in the market, in case of any instability.
Earlier, rice imported by the Indonesian government started arriving at some seaports across the country, such as Merauke in Papua, to increase the national food stocks, as the El Nino-induced drought has affected several regions.
According to Indonesia's agriculture ministry, a drought between August and November this year has triggered harvest failures and reduced rice stocks. The country's output was unable to reach 75.5 million tonnes this year, as previously predicted by Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics. —VNS