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Indonesia forecasts 4.2 mln tonne rice surplus in 2014

The Indonesian agriculture ministry forecast the country's rice outputs to be surplus by 4.2 million tonnes this year despite a decline in production of un-hulled rice.
The Indonesian agriculture ministry forecast the country's rice outputsto be surplus by 4.2 million tonnes this year despite a decline inproduction of un-hulled rice.

The Xinhua newsagency quoted Haryono, a senior official from the ministry, as sayingthat this is the country's first of its three forecasts of riceproduction in a year, which expected the production of the un-hulledrice at 69.871 million tonnes in 2014, scaling down from 71.28 milliontonne in 2013.

Deputy agriculture minister RusmanHeriawan also said that the Indonesian government would not import ricethis year as the domestic production is sufficient to meet demand.

Heriawan revealed that the country's husked-rice production isestimated to grow by 0.35 percent to 34 million tonnes this year from ayear earlier based on the first government forecast, and he expected thefigure to rise in the second estimate that will be announced soon.

Indonesia has previously imported rice from Thailand , Vietnam and other countries.

The deputy minister said that rice self-sufficiency will continue in the coming years.

TheIndonesian government expects to raise rice stockpile to 2.7 milliontonnes this year, in an attempt to strengthen food security, said HattaRajasa, former economic chief minister.-VNA
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