REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KARANGANYAR -- The government will not import rice this year, as part of efforts to improve the standard of living of farmers, Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said.

"The government will not import rice," he affirmed in his address at a regional development planning meeting here on Tuesday.

Sulaiman added that Thailand had, numerous times, offered 1.5 million tons of rice at Rp4,000 a kilogram for Indonesia to import from the country, with the offered price being well below that of local prices, which stand at Rp8,000 to Rp12,000 a kilogram.

"If we import 1.5 million tons of rice (from Thailand), we will gain Rp6 trillion in profit. But I declined their offer and said we were not importing rice," he stated.

President Joko Widodo has always controlled domestic stocks of rice, the minister pointed out.

"When the prices of rice were high, the president contacted me nearly every day to enquire whether the rice stocks would suffice," he revealed.

According to the minister, it would be better to distribute the profit Indonesia would earn if it imported of rice from Thailand among farmers, particularly among those in Central Java.

"We do not need to help Thai farmers, who are rich and have high yield. Let's pray that if we can work together, God willing, we will not need to import rice this year," Sulaiman remarked.

The meeting was also attended by Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo, the district heads of Sragen, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo, and Wonogiri, and the mayor of Surakarta.

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