Illustrative photo (Photo: thejakartapost.com) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s rice production in 2023 will reduce by 650,000 tonnes or 2.05% compared to that of last year, according to Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
This year's rice production is estimated to reach 30.9 million tonnes. BPS’s data shows that the rice production from October to December is forecast to decrease 10.92% to 4.78 million tonnes from last year’s production of 5.37 million tonnes.
Speaking at a press conference on October 16, acting head of BPS Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said that the country’s rice production area is estimated to be reduced by 2.45% from 10.45 million ha last year to 10.2 million ha this year.
Amalia said that the reduced rice area is mostly in three major rice-producing provinces – West Java, Central Java and South Sulawesi.
Prolonged droughts caused crop losses in regions in Indonesia.
Amalia added that similar to Indonesia, other rice-producing countries such as India, Thailand and Vietnam also face a decline in output due to El Niño and drier weather.
Previously, the Indonesian Government directed the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to buy an additional 2 million tonnes of rice next year to ensure national rice reserves and promptly respond to possible poor harvest season due to the influence from El Niño.
Currently, Vietnam and Thailand will be two key rice suppliers for Indonesia this year./.
