Government Suspects Irregularities in Indonesia's Rice Imports

October 16, 2025 | 06:40 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Agriculture Zulkifli Hasan questioned the need for Indonesia to import rice from Vietnam and Thailand, given the country's ample agricultural land. "It means that we have something wrong, we have a wider land, a larger population, but we are unable to produce; our productivity is not sufficient," Zulkifli said during a discussion titled Organizing Indonesia's Path Towards the World's Food Granary, broadcast live on CNN Indonesia's YouTube channel on Thursday, October 16, 2025.

Zulkifli stated that after the reform era, Indonesia was actually left behind by several countries that were once competitors, such as China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. "That's the concern of the President, because these policies are interrelated," he said.

The National Mandate Party politician emphasized the urgency of food sovereignty. Zulkifli stated that the people have the right to obtain quality food at affordable prices. Zulkifli said that food sovereignty concerns the fate of farmers, who, he said, make up one-third of Indonesia's population.

He also believed that food sovereignty was key to solving one-third of the country's issues. "If we can solve this, we will solve a third of the problems in the country, including poverty," he said.

Zulkifli then mentioned the increased national agricultural productivity this year. He said that based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), from January to November 2025, rice production was estimated to reach 33.19 million tons, which is a 12.62 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

He emphasized that the government will not import rice as production increases. He also stated that Indonesia has not imported rice throughout this year. This is different from last year, when the government imported 4.52 million tons of rice. According to him, importing 10 percent of commodities already includes self-sufficiency. "We don't import anymore, in fact, we have a surplus," he said.

Zulkifli predicted a rice production surplus of up to four million tons by the end of the year. "So, we can already say that this year we are self-sufficient in rice," he said.

In addition to rice, Zulhas noted an increase in corn production. He said that corn production reached 14.54 million tons this year, which is about an 8.62 percent increase compared to last year.

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