China, S. Korea, Japan to provide rice for ASEAN plan
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China, South Korea and Japan will each provide up to 200,000 tons of rice for a contingency plan of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) plus three, out of total allocation of 787,000 tons, an Indonesian minister said in Jakarta on Saturday.
"ASEAN plus three intends to sign a commitment of the ASEAN plus Three Emergency Rice Resources (APTERR) in Jakarta in October. The biggest contribution will be provided by China, South Korea and Japan that will allocate up to 200,000 tons each," Agriculture Minister Suswono said after the opening of the 18th ASEAN Summit.
According to him, Indonesia will allocate 12,000 tons that could be increased to 25,000 tons.
"This is just our proposal to increase the reserves. It's no problem for us to provide the rice as last year we had surplus of 4 million tons," he said.
He said that he was hoping other countries to agree the proposal as it will trigger them to increase their allocation in the sake of price stability.
"I think the proposal will be welcomed by other countries as price volatility will have big impact on small farmers who are net consumers actually. That would increase our food security plan in ASEAN plus three," he said.
Suswono added that the reserves will be stored in each country.
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