Maize production in Indonesia to increase by 11% this year

Indonesia's dry maize production is expected to increase by four million tons, or 11 percent from last year, making the country a net maize exporter, an agricultural ministry official said.
According to the estimation of the Central Bureau of Statistics(BPS), this year's dry maize production would increase by 11 percent from last year's 14.2 million tons, Antara news agency on Sunday quoted Sutarto Alimoeso, Director General for Food Crops at the Agriculture Ministry, as saying.
Last year, national dry maize production recorded an increase by 3.5 million tons, which according to a BPS report increased by 14 percent compared with that a year earlier, the official said in Karawang, West Java, on Saturday.
The director general said that prices of maize in the world market were showing an upward trend since some nations used the commodity to make biofuel or alternative energy to replace fuel oils.
Source:Xinhua