"The South Sulawesi governor has officially written to me asking for a permit to export 200 thousand tons of rice to South Korea," Agriculture Minister Suswono said at the Vice Presidential Office here on Tuesday.
Suswono said the Agriculture Ministry was studying the application because it was related to national rice stocks.
The ministry would likely license South Sulawesi to export rice but not for that amount, he said.
"True, it will be allowed (to export rice) but we still have to study its volume. It would be better if we have adequate rice stocks, say we can buy rice at low price," he said.
Yet the minister did not rule out the possibility that farmers who had small area of farm land would be encouraged to grow premium quality rice for export. Premium quality rice could fetch high price in the international market so that the farmers could benefit from it, he said.
"I think we will encourage the farmers to grow premium quality rice for export. With the high price of premium quality rice in the global market they can buy medium quality rice," he said.
Indonesia had so far exported premium quality rice but its volume still ran into thousands of tons, he said. (T.M041/S012/HAJM/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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