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 Xinhua news agency quoted Haryono, a senior official from the ministry, as saying that this is the country's first of its three forecasts of rice production in a year, which expected the production of the un-hulled rice at 69.871 million tonnes in 2014, scaling down from 71.28 million tonne in 2013.

Deputy agriculture minister Rusman Heriawan also said that the Indonesian government would not import rice this year as the domestic production is sufficient to meet demand.

Heriawan revealed that the country's husked-rice production is estimated to grow by 0.35 percent to 34 million tonnes this year from a year earlier based on the first government forecast, and he expected the figure 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.

The Indonesian government expects to raise rice stockpile to 2.7 million tonnes this year, in an attempt to strengthen food security, said Hatta Rajasa, former economic chief minister.-VNA