Indonesia`s Bulog aims to expand rice business

"We are improving rice quality and distribution. If it succeeds, we want to revive sales to civil servants, military and police," Abubakar said in an interview with Reuters.

"This will be a massive business," he added.

Bulog, which was set up under former autocratic President Suharto, had distributed and managed stocks of key commodities such as rice, sugar, wheat and soybeans.

But apart from rice it lost its monopolies in basic commodities in 1998, as part of an economic reform package agreed with the IMF during the economic crisis.

In 1998, Bulog sold 1.6 million tonnes of rice for the three groups worth around 3.08 trillion rupiah ($335.7 million).