Often when people in Southeast Asia ask if you have eaten yet, they refer to rice. It is a common belief in the region that if you have not eaten rice in a day, then it means you haven’t eaten at all.
This belief is based on the fact that the primary agricultural production in the region is rice. While Southeast Asia itself consists of countries whose level of development, contribution, and diversity are varied, judging—the comparing the price of staple food in the region cannot be done at the same level.
However, the rice price in a country can indicate the overall progress of its management and policy in the agricultural sector.
Indonesia as the significant rice producer has been named the Southeast Asian country with the most expensive rice.
In 2016, a twisted fact revealed in the country where the government of Indonesia requested the highest rice subsidy within Southeast Asia countries, yet the price of rice in Indonesia remained the highest in the region.
Cambodia and Myanmar were once the countries with higher rice price compared to Thailand. Nevertheless, due to improved rice management in the countries, in 2016 Cambodia and Myanmar has successfully repriced into cheaper rice than that of Thailand’s.
In the same year, Indonesia demanded at least Rp 5 million per annum for its rice subsidy, way higher than Thailand’s rice subsidy that was only Rp 1 million per year.
Even until last year, 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) conveyed, Indonesia’s rice price was around US$1 / kg in 2016. Meanwhile, the international standard of rice price was only around US$0.4/kg. Indonesia’s rice price was definitely over double the global standard.
To have a more balanced comparison, FAO attempted to compare rice prices within Southeast Asian countries instead of observing the cost from the perspective of the global standard price.
Nonetheless, Indonesia still presented the highest price in the region. In March 2017, Indonesia had the rice price at around US$0.79/kg, Thailand and Vietnam as the other rice producers in Southeast Asia set the price at around US$0.33/kg and US$0.31/kg respectively, while Cambodia paid US$0.42/kg.
Earlier this year, it was reported by the Vice President of the Cambodia Rice Federation, Hun Lak that Cambodia showed improvement in this matter due to increased exports. For instance, the price of Cambodian fragrant rice indicated a significant improvement in less than a month. In early February 2018, the price of fragrant rice was at US$735/ton and increased to US$775/ton by the end of February 2018.
Some points to be considered by Indonesia in its effort to improve the rice price are to use the fertilizer wisely, an improvement on farmer’s education toward the technology and land usage, set a reasonable price for harvested corps and reviewing the rice subsidy if needed.