Rice surplus seen at 2.3-2.8M tons in 2009

Indonesia is expecting its rice surplus to reach 2.3-2.8 million tons by year-end, which it aims to keep to cover any shortfall in output next year due to drier weather, the agriculture minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

"As we will have a surplus in stock this year, we don't have to worry about next year and we don't have to import," Anton Apriyantono told reporters.

Apriyantono said the return of El Nino could reduce production by around 1.6 million tons next year, which should be covered by the carry-over stocks from this year.

The Central Bureau of Statistics previously forecast that Indonesia was expected to produce 62.56 million tons of unmilled grains (or about 39 million tons of milled rice) this year, lifting its earlier forecast of 60.93 million tons which it announced in March.