JAKARTA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia estimated that its rice stockpile would be over 22 million tons by this year and would not import the staple food, officials said on Thursday.
The upbeat expectation came amid a threat of global food shortage caused by a long drought amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Indonesia has produced 16 million tons of rice during the first grand harvest time which ended in June and expected to produce up to 15 million tons of the staple during the second grand harvest season this year, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said.
In addition to the productions, there is also a total of 7.49 million tons of last year's rice stockpile which was expected to carry over this year's stock.
The FAO has warned of a long drought which would be much longer than that usually hitting countries. Enditem
