REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Government's plan to bring foreign investors into national rice business gets cold response. President Director of Bulog (state owned logistic agency), Sutarto Alimoeso warned government not to allow foreign investor to dominate strategic food sector in Indonesia.

"Investment of national rice must be offered to local investors. We still need some restrictions because rice business should be managed by local investors," Alimoeso said on Saturday.

Alimoeso warned that if foreign investors controlled national rice production then they would have larger quantity of rice stock compared to Bulog. In that case, those foreign investor will have the power to steer rice price in domestic market. the impact will burden rice farmers and its consumers in Indonesia. 

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Rusman Heriawan said it was not easy to generate rice fields in Indonesia. But he claimed that no foreigner showed any interest on agricultural land in Indonesia. Not even any sign of it in the latest memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between PT Tri Indah Mandiri as a local company with China Liaoning Wufeng Company (Chinese) and Amarak Group (Malaysian).

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