ASEAN agrees to maintain rice price stability
INDONESIA: ASEAN trade ministers agreed Saturday to help each other
during the global food crisis and to take measures to maintain the
stability of rice prices and boost production.
"(ASEAN) will help each other in stabilising the global (food) price
and not take steps that will disrupt the price of rice," Indonesian
Trade Minister Marie Elka Pangestu said on Elshinta radio.
"Ensuring the stability of rice (price) is the priority," she said.
Pangestu said the ministers had agreed to continue exports provided
domestic needs were being met.
"We will not export if our domestic needs are not enough. Like
Thailand, they have announced that they have a surplus in rice
production and they will not stop exports," she added. Pangestu added
that although Indonesia is producing enough rice for domestic
consumption.
She said the ministers also agreed to increase production and the
approach would be further discussed by agriculture ministers.
Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to
the World Bank, sparking riots last month in Egypt and Haiti, protests
in other countries and restrictions on food exports from Brazil,
Vietnam, India and Egypt.
Jakarta, Sunday, AFP
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