REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, REJANGLEBONG -- Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said the government has no plan to import rice despite the price hike lately.

Andi said the price would be normal again as the state-owned Board of Logistics (Bulog) has started releasing stock to the market.

"The price already fall by up to Rp1,400 per kilogram after Bulog released 300,000 tons of its stock," he said when handing over farming tools in assistance to a group of farmers here on Tuesday.

In Jakarta the price price was as high as Rp12,000 per kg bur in the regions such as West Java and Central Java the price of rice was around Rp7,000 per kilogram.

He said he suspected the high price difference was caused by problem in distribution.

He said the price would be normal again in a week especially harvest would start soon, adding in the regency of Ponorogo, East Java, harvest is even expected to start late this week.

"Big harvest in Ponorogo will take place in 500,000 hectares of rice fields to turn out around 3.l million tons of unhulled rice," he said.

Harvest would follow from 2.4 million hectares of rice fields in other areas in the country later this month with production of 18 million tons of unhulled rice, he said.

The minister visited Rejanglebong, Bengkulu, to witness the start of big harvest and hand over farming tools.

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