---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- ANTARA, September 24, 1999 Stoppage-Australia: Indon Company Stops Importing Wheat From Australia Jakarta, Sept 23 (ANTARA)-An Indonesian flour company that has been a regular Australian wheat importer has stopped buying from the country down-under and shipted its purchases to the United States and other wheat exporting countries in Europe, Latin Amerika and Asia. "We have stopped importing wheat from Australia in protest against Australia's unfriendly behaviour toward our countyry," PT Sriboga Ratyraya's president director, Bustanil Arifin, said here Thursday. He said Australia's unfriendly acts such as the burning of Indonesia's flags and the workers' boycott of Indonesian cargoes had surpassed "the bounds of propriety." A series of demonstrations outside the Indonesian embassy had disrupted the embassy's work for days on end, he noted. "In response to these undiplomatic attitudes and after a careful consideration of the pros and cons, we decided to stop importing wheat from Australia," Bustanil, a former National Logistics Agency (Bulog) head, said. Sriboga has been importing 450,000 to 500,000 tons of wheat from Australia annually to produce flour for the domistic market. Bustanil said the stoppage of Australian wheat imports would not affect his company's production capacity. Neither would it have an impact on its product's price. "We have a wheat stock of 60,000 tons which is enough until December 1999," he said. He said the decision was also taken in anticipation of the further stance of the Australian government toward Indonesia which, he said, was "unpredictable". Sriboga is only one of a few Indonesian companies that have been importing Australian wheat on a regular basis. Overall, the country's wheat imports from Australia stand at 5.5 million tons a year. Another flour company, PT Bogasari Flour Mills, accounts for 50 percent of the country's annual wheat imports from Australia. (T/AR-05/NN-06/17:53/INT-AJM-20:10/NN01/20:23/TB02) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 28 Sep 1999 jam 13:28:04 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
