Jakarta, 7 October 2011
The 11th ASEAN Plus Three Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF Plus Three) signed the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) Agreement in Jakarta today. The Agreement is a testimony to ASEAN’s efforts with China, Japan, and Republic of Korea in ensuring the long-term food security and livelihoods of the people in the region as envisioned by the ASEAN Heads of Government at the 14th ASEAN Summit in 2009.
This Agreement is also of significance because ASEAN Plus Three countries are both major consumers and producers of rice. Around two-third of rice is produced in ASEAN Plus Three countries and more than half of the world’s rice export comes from this region. Thus, rice is an important factor in addressing food security in the region.
“Rice is a main staple food and an integrated part of culture and way of life in East Asia. Rice trade in the region, however, has been very small – only 5-6 per cent of the world’s rice production in the world market. As a result, there is a need to strengthen regional cooperation to ensure food security in the East Asia, which the APTERR Agreement will promote,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN.
With the establishment of APTERR, the region will be better prepared to meet food relief requirements resulting from natural disasters and humanitarian emergency situation.
“The APTERR will help countries in the region to meet the needs of their citizens during anticipated and unanticipated disasters as well as during acute and emergency situations providing a mechanism for quick and predictable emergency relief,” said Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community, Mr S. Pushpanathan.
On the future of APTERR, Mr Pushpanathan said the focus should be the early operationalisation of APTERR to address the increasing natural disasters in the region. He added that “in the long term, APTERR could expand to other staple food commodities to support the region’s response to volatility in food prices and surge in food demand.”
Click here for the Joint Statement of the Eleventh Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministers of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (11th AMAF Plus Three), Jakarta, 7 October 2011.
