Overcome Egg And Meat Prices, Badanas Ensures Only Small Farmers Are Imported

Corn illustration (Photo: Doc. intermediate)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi ensured that the recipients of 500 thousand tons of imported feed corn were only small independent farmers. This is done in order to reduce the fluctuations in the price of eggs and chicken meat in the country.

"We will carry out limited imports only for animal feed for small independent breeders, if later there is news in the media 'wah Bapanas likes importing, why does the Minister of Agriculture like to import, not', I want to say that this is to meet the needs of feed corn," said Arief at the commemoration of World Food Day 2023 monitored online in Jakarta, Monday, October 16.

"It has also been decided in a limited meeting (ratas), I also conveyed to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture this morning that Bulog only limited it and immediately distributed it to small farmers," he added.

Arief, who also serves as Plt. The Minister of Agriculture said that during the last four months the production of animal feed corn has been negative even though there has been a slight surplus compared to the previous period.

Therefore, in addition to continuing to prioritize domestic production, the government has decided to import animal feed corn so that this condition does not drag on and has an impact on the price of eggs and chicken meat which will continue to increase.

"I have been with the Director General of Food Crops to conduct a review together. We are not in a position to maintain a surplus, no, but we have to explain the conditions today, El Nino, lack of water, the seeds are not good, the fertilizers don't arrive, now we have to fix it," said Arief.

So that prices at the farmer level remain good, said Arief, his party also asked the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) to speed up import permits so that imports of animal feed corn can start immediately before the domestic harvest.

"Don't let the imports come late when they have been harvested. It can't be like that. From Bulog, please help us accelerate it all. According to farmer data, the data on who received the corn was already from the Director General of PKH, of course it has been verified, nothing should be missed, of course, small farmers, not big ones," he said.

As for the Panel of Food Prices, the national average price of corn at the farmer level reached IDR 6,840 per kg on October 1, then it increased to IDR 7,000 per kg on October 10, 2023. This condition is due to the increasing price of corn at the producer and consumer level and exceeding the Sales Reference Price (HAP).