"The import option is not prohibited but we asked that it should first be studied in case there is something necessary such as constant price increases that require immediate rice import," he told reporters at the Presidential Office on Tuesday.
The Vice President has earlier held a rice-related meeting with ministers and related officials.
The Vice President conveyed that response in relation to the continuing upward trend if rice price which has now reached more than Rp11,000 per kg, exceeding the highest retail price (HET) of Rp9.450 per kg.
The Basic Necessity Market Monitoring System (SP2KP) of the Trade Ministry, sees that the price of medium quality rice has continued to increase. On Sunday (Jan 7), the national average price of medium quality rice was Rp11,041 but on Monday it increased to Rp11,131 per kilogram and Tuesday it rose to Rp11,177 per kg.
The Vice President on the occasion asked state logistics board Bulog to conduct a massive market operation to curb the price increase.
Referring to the report of the Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, according to Vice President, in January there will also be rice harvest for rice that was planted in October so that it will increase rice stock.
To that end, he hoped that the market operations and the harvest in January will be able to stabilize prices.
"We have agreed to order a massive market operation and to release all Bulog stocks. We guarantee that at the end of January the harvest will have started, so that there will be market operations and rice harvest," he said.
However, import options are more open when the price of medium rice reaches Rp12,000 per kg. "However, we do not want to take risks, if one day the price still rises, then the import option must remain open. The Rp12.000 per kg is the medium price, because the benchmark price is Rp9.300," he added.
(A014/b003/B003)
(T.A014/B/KR-BSR/B003)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
