"Currently we are still dependent on imports for the two essential commodities," Gita said here on Saturday.
He said in the case of rice the government has to be sensitive enough not to discourage the farmers.
Earlier the government said it planned to import 700,000 tons of rice to increase the national stock held by the Board of Logistics (Bulog) to 2 million tons by the end of 2012.
Gita, however, said the import figure is not yet final, adding it could be less than 700,000 tons.
Yesterday, Agriculture Minister Suswono said the country would have only 1.3 million tons of rice in stock by the end of this year without imports.
Gita expressed concern in learning the fact that 70 percent of the country`s annual soybean requirement of around 2.5 million tons has to be imported.
"This indicates that our food security is still very low," he said.
Currently, Indonesia has to import around 1.7 million tons of soybean to meet domestic requirement.
The stability on the domestic market, therefore, depends on the condition in the world market.
Recently the country`s producers of soybean curd and fermented soybean cakes, two popular foods in the country stopped production in protest against soaring price of soybean because of shortfall in supply mainly from the United States.
(H-ASG/B003)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
