Indonesia buys 300,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam

Nhan Dan - The Indonesian Bureau of Logistics (Bulog) is buying 300,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam to maintain its rice reserve of around two million tonnes.

Bulog is also tendering for 100,000 tonnes of rice from India because it is cheaper than that from Thailand and it plans to complete shipping the rice from Vietnam and India to Indonesia by December 25.

The Indonesian government recently allowed Bulog to import one million tonnes of rice while the food stock agency announced that it would import between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes of rice this year.

Earlier, Bulog signed deals to purchase 1.5 million tonnes of Vietnamese rice, as well as 100,000 tonnes from Cambodia, 1 million tonnes from Thailand and 200,000 tonnes from Myanmar.

Indonesia expects to grow 39 million tonnes of rice this year, one million tonnes above the 2012 target and three million more than the 2011 output.