05 December 2017
Liputan6.com, Jakarta – The Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) stated that Indonesia’s rice exports experienced a significant increase in 2017.

Agricultural Statistics Functional Officer, Center for Data and Information Systems of the Ministry of Agriculture Sri Wahyuni, said, based on trade balance data in the agricultural sector of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the growth in the volume of consumption of rice exports from January to October 2017 reached 4,227 percent compared to the same period in 2016

“This very sharp growth was obtained from the comparison of export volume from January to October 2016 with the export volume for the same period in 2016,” he said in a written statement in Jakarta, Tuesday (5/12/2017).

He explained, from January to October 2016, the volume of consumption of rice exports was only 79 tons. This volume is much smaller than the export volume obtained in January to October 2017 which reached 3,434 tons.

“This achievement is new in Indonesian history. The Special Effort to increase production and accelerate self-sufficiency, one of which is rice, proclaimed by Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman is one of the keys to achieving this, “he said.

According to Sri, the Special Effort program was not limited to increasing production, but was followed by real work to increase rice exports. Evidently, in February 2017, Indonesia made a new history, namely rice exports from Merauke, Papua to Papua Nugini.

Then, at the momentum of World Food Day in October 2017, Indonesia again exported rice to Malaysia. Indonesia has also exported Belgian organic rice.

“Some of these export lists are clear evidence that there has been a tremendous growth in Indonesia’s consumption of rice exports,” he said.

Based on BPS data, countries that have imported rice from Indonesia between January and October 2017 are America, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Italy, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Singapore.