According to a report by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia imported 429,207 tons of rice throughout 2022, a 5% increase year-on-year (yoy).
In 2022, India was the largest source country for rice imports, followed by Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, as shown in the graph.
For 2023, the Indonesian government plans to import rice again from these countries, but the total volume will increase to 2 million tons.
President Jokowi stated that imports must be carried out quickly, as there is a potential El Niño this year that could disrupt rice production.
"We don't want to be scrambling to buy rice when the long dry season arrives because there's none available," Jokowi said, as broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account on Thursday, April 6, 2023.
Despite the request for speed, as of April 2023, the Logistics Agency (Bulog) had only signed contracts for the import of 500,000 tons of rice, a quarter of the planned total volume.
"If domestic absorption is high, then we don't need to increase imports; 500,000 tons will be sufficient," said Perum Bulog's President Director, Budi Waseso, as reported by Katadata on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
According to data from the Ministry of Trade, rice prices in Indonesia have continued to rise throughout the first quarter of this year.
In March 2023, the national average price of premium rice reached Rp13,713 per kilogram (kg).
This price is up 1.4% month-on-month (mom), up 10.6% year-on-year (yoy), and represents a new record high in the last five years.
Prices also increased for medium-quality rice. In March 2023, the national average price of medium-quality rice reached Rp11,869 per kg. The price increased by 1.4% (mom), increased by 14.1% (yoy), and is the highest price since 2018.
"We haven't managed to lower rice prices to this day. In fact, they tend to rise, and the increase isn't small; it's more than Rp1,000. Even though the data shows that we have a large surplus (of rice)," said Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan in a meeting with Commission VI of the DPR, as reported by Katadata on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.