Bidding for Indonesian rice imports postponed
Indonesia's State Logistics Agency postponed bidding for rice imports this week, following a revision of both port destinations and the country's rice-import quotas.
The bidding process, which was to start this past Monday, was expected to begin yesterday instead. Bidding Committee head Agusdin Farid said Trade Minister Mari Pangestu de- cided on Monday morning to revise the list of ports to receive rice and quotas for rice imports. In a letter to the logistics agency, the minister sought to increase the number of ports from 10 to 12 by adding Papua's Port Biak and Maluku's Port Ambon to receive 6,000 tonnes and 12,000 tonnes, respectively, reported the Antara News Agency. The minister also revised the import quota for Port Belawan by increasing it from 22,000 tonnes to 28,000 tonnes, Port Dumai from 16,000 tonnes to 22,000 tonnes and Balikpapan from 14,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes, all of them in North Sumatra. And for North Sulawesi's Port Bitung, the import quota was raised from 24,000 tons to 30,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, she decided to allow Port Lhokseumawe in Aceh to receive 18,000 tonnes, Port Padang in West Sumatra and Sorong in Irian Jaya, 12,000 tonnes each and Port Jayapura in Papua, 6,000 tonnes, because shipments had already been scheduled. Port Ciwandan in Banten was taken off the list of rice import destinations. Agusdin said the opening price for bidding would be revised because shipment costs were included. On Monday, about 24 representatives of bidders turned up for the auction, only to be told of the postponement. "In the next two days, they will have a chance to conduct a review before making new bids," Agusdin said. In the first stage of the auction process, the agency singles out three bidders be- fore holding a final round. The government has allo-cated 390 billion rupiah (Bt1.61 billion) from this year's state budget to import about 210,000 tonnes of rice to boost reserves, which were substantially reduced by demand for relief supplies in earthquakes and the recent tsunami on Java. The trade minister said the government would go ahead with the rice-import plan despite strong protests not only from the farmers' association, but also from non-governmental organizations and members of the House of Representatives, who say the move will hurt Indonesian farmers.
The Jakarta Post Asia News Network Jakarta
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