Indonesia inks MoU on importing 1 mln tonnes of rice from India (Photo: antaranews.com) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan onJune 15 informed that his ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)on importing one million tonnes of rice from India to anticipate the impact ofthe El Niño phenomenon this year.
Hasan said the ministry needs to conductinitiatives to confront El Niño. Rice stocks for the people must not becomelimited despite the drought forecast.
The rice import agreement with India is outside of theNational Food Agency's (NFA) assignment to state-owned logistics firm PerumBulog to import rice this year.
Earlier, Perum Bulog has been tasked by the NFA to import twomillion tonnes of rice throughout this year. However, the figure does not haveto be realised entirely.
According to Hasan, the latest MoU encompasses the price andavailability of Indian rice. However, the purchase time has not been decided bythe two countries.
He acknowledged that the signed MoU is used for fix priced. The goods exist, but his ministry has not purchased them.However, the G-to-G (government-to-government) MoU already exists. This year,if Indonesia needs more rice, the country can buy it./.
