Corn farmers in North Sumatra urged the government to maintain the import ban until March or April as the current harvest will last until that month.
“The farmers are thankful because since the import ban started in the middle of January, demand and price of local corn have continued to increase. The farmers expect that the import will continue to be banned until end of March or early April as they’re still making harvest until the period,” Head of the Indonesian Corn Farmers Association, Jemat Sebayang, was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia on Tuesday.
Corn harvest in North Sumatra this year occurs in January-March and July-September period, Jemat said. He added that if import is allowed during harvest period, price will fall as happened in late December to early January 2012.
But after import was banned, corn price quickly increased to Rp 2,400 per kg from Rp 1,800 per kg previously, he added. (rei)
