Indonesia may stop importing rice from Thailand if it finds high levels of arsenic in the samples.

A consumer group has urged the Indonesian government to inspect the samples of rice coming in from countries where the rice is known to contain high levels of arsenic, reports The Jakarta Globe.

"All imported rice should be checked by the Food and Drug Agency (BPOM) to prevent unwanted effects," Abubakar Siddik, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) North Sumatra, told the Antara News Agency, according to Jakarta Globe. "We don't want foreign products imported into this nation to cause a problem for society." 

Although Indonesia and Thailand have a Memorandum of Understanding regarding rice imports, the government is likely to put a stop to rice imports from Thailand, if the need arises. Bulog, the rice import company in Indonesia, will also test rice from India and Vietnam.

"The goal of our report is to inform - not alarm - consumers about the importance of reducing arsenic exposure," Urvashi Rangan, director of safety and sustainability at Consumer Reports - a food safety group, told Reuters. "The silver lining in all of this is that it is possible to get a better handle on this."

Import Restrictions Are Not Helpful: OECD

Indonesia has been trying to attain food self-sufficiency. But, the road to food self-sufficiency seems to be paved with too many hurdles.

High tariffs and several import restrictions are the major steps taken by the Indonesian government to help its farmers and consumers. Unfortunately, the OECD believes that these steps are more of a detriment to the plan.

"Food self-sufficiency does not address the core elements of food security in particular because the use of import protection to increase the returns of farmers also increases food costs for consumers and hinders the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, thereby limiting agricultural productivity growth," the OECD report said.

"If the aim is to improve access to food for Indonesian consumers, you wouldn't think raising the price of that food would be a good place to start," Ken Ash, director of the OECD trade and agriculture directorate, told Reuters in an interview. "That's exactly what an import measure does, whether a tariff, quantitative restriction or standard constraint at the border."

Rather than restrict imports, the country would benefit more from branching out into growing valuable crops, apart from rice. Introduction of voucher schemes for the purchase of fertilizers and a "rice for poor" scheme is also recommended by the OECD report.  

Around 40 million of the country's population of 240 million is employed in the agriculture sector.