JAKARTA- Indonesia may not import rice in 2025, Zulkifli Hasan, a senior minister overseeing food affairs, said on Monday.
Indonesia’s rice output is estimated to fall 2.43 percent this year to 30.34 million metric tons, due to a delay in planting and the harvest season after dry weather in 2023, the statistics bureau said last month.
Indonesia’s rice imports have jumped in the past two years, reaching over 3 million metric tons each year.
Zulkifli told reporters that if imports were needed it would likely be a small amount of rice, depending on supplies, and some of this year’s import allocation that cannot be delivered would be carried over into next year.
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 (1.85 million acres and 2.47 million acres) of new rice fields in 2025 to achieve President Prabowo Subianto’s target of food self-reliance.
Rice is a staple for most of Indonesia’s 280 million population and the main rice harvest typically starts in March.
Indonesia’s rice imports have jumped in the past two years, reaching over 3 million metric tons each year.
Earlier, Hasan said Indonesia is considering a plan to import 1 million metric tons of rice from India in 2025 to secure supply until its main harvest. The world’s largest rice exporter India has removed the floor price for the export of non-basmati white rice this month to boost exports due to expectation of higher output and with stocks piling up since the 2023 export restrictions.
