JAKARTA, Sept 16 ― Indonesia recorded a large increase in rice imports in the first eight months this year compared to the same period last year, the statistics agency said yesterday, as Southeast Asia's biggest economy seeks to boost stocks of its staple commodity.
Indonesia imported 1.59 million tonnes of rice from January to August this year, Statistics Indonesia head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said, while more than 429,000 tonnes of rice were imported for the whole of 2022. Most rice imports came from Southeast Asian neighbours, with Thailand sending 802,000 tons and Vietnam exporting 674,000 tons of the commodity over the period.
But the rice imports were complicated by import restriction measures taken by other countries including India, President Joko Widodo said yesterday.