Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan called on the public to start reducing consumption of rice and sugar as the per capita consumption of the two key food commodities in the country is still one of the highest in the world.
Gita said that the country still partly rely on import for the supply of the two commodities.
He, however, said that the government strategy to reduce import should not merely rely on increasing production but must also seek ways to cut down consumption as demand has continued to increase.
“Rice consumption of the people in Indonesia is the highest in the world. Indonesians consume rice about 135-140 per kg per year per capita. Compared to other people in Asia, this (consumption level) is quite high. The average in Asia is only 65-60 per kg per capita per year,” said Gita as quoted by Kompas on Tuesday.
The same also applies for sugar, as Indonesians loves sweet foods, he added. He said that reducing sugar consumption would also be healthy to help prevent diabetes.
Gita explained that the ministry’s long-term strategy to deal with the negative effect of rising import is to push the public to reduce the consumption of the two commodities, encouraging them to diversity to other local food crops.
“This (campaign) can’t be done in a short period. The implementation must be coordinated with other (government) departments,” he said, adding that going forward, if this campaign could be successful, the country could turn into exporter of rice and sugar.
According to Achmad Suryana, Chairman of the Food Security Agency, a presidential regulation was issued in 2009 with a target to cut down rice consumption by 1.5 percent per year to urge the people to diversity to other local food products.
“The people must be encouraged to diversify to other local food products. Unfortunately, not many have diversified, in fact they turned to flour, particularly noodles, which are still mostly imported. The diversification should move toward local food crops,” he explained. (rei)
