West Kalimantan ready to export rice to Malaysia

Pontianak, W Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - West Kalimantan province is ready to export rice to Malaysia thanks to its rice production surplus which this year is expected to reach 150,000 tons, in official said.

"West Kalimantan has the chance to export rice," Hazairin, head of West Kalimantan`s Agricultural Service, said here on Friday. 

He said the Malaysian state of Sarawak needed 115,000 tons of rice per year and 95 percent of the volume was currently being imported from Vietnam. 

Hazairin said West Kalimantan shared a land border with Sarawak so that it had the chance to win some of the rice market in the Malaysian state. 

Referring to the ban on rice exports imposed by the central government, Hazairin said there was still an opportunity to export rice through the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). 

"The export can be carried out through the Bulog export program. Exporting rice will economically benefit both farmers and the state," he said. 

He said it would be better for West Kalimantan to export its rice rather than let local people sell it to Sarawak illegally. 

There were a number of border gates believed to have been used so far by local people to sell rice to Sarawak illegally, he said. 

"There are illegal rice exports from West Kalimantan to Malaysia but we don`t know the exact quantity," Hazairin said. 

He said a price disparity of as wide as 100 percent was enticing local people to export their rice illegally to Sarawak. 

West Kalimantan has set itself the target of producing 1.3 million tons of dry unhulled rice following the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG)`s prediction sometime ago that rainfall would remain normal until next August. 

In 2005, West Kalimantan`s rice surplus was recorded at 13,913 tons, in 2006 at 47,216 tons and at 104,194 tons in 2007. Provisional data showed that the province`s rice surplus until mid 2008 reached 164,279 tons. It is expected the rice surplus this year would reach 200,000 tons.