Ahead Of Ramadan, Airlangga Claims Medium And Premium Rice Begins To Fall

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto conveyed the development of rice prices ahead of the fasting month or Ramadan. He said, the price of medium and premium rice had begun to move down.

Today before we enter the Holy month of Ramadan, there are several things that need to be updated. First, food prices, medium rice that we monitor Rp14,310 per kg, it decreases slightly. Then premium rice at Rp16,420 per kg," he said at a press conference, Friday, March 8.

Referring to the National Food Agency price panel, the national average medium rice price was recorded at IDR 14,310 per kilogram (kg), down 0.07 percent compared to the price in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the price of premium rice was also observed at premium rice of Rp. 16,420 per kg, down 0.42 percent compared to the price in the previous week.

Airlangga said that currently the government's rice reserve stock (CBP) controlled by Perum Bulog is 1,131,885 tons and commercial stock is 14,559 tons.

"The procurement of rice from abroad still exists on the 614,700 tons, then also Bulog has contracted food stability or rice SPHP of 416,516 tons, and distribution of food aid of 391,353 tons," he explained.

On Monday, March 4, Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi revealed that rice prices will fall in the near future. This decrease in rice prices is in line with the entry of the main harvest season in the country.

For your information, this year's first harvest season will start in early March 2024 until the end of March 2024. Currently, there are a number of areas that have started harvesting. Among them, Lamongan, Tuban, Bojonegoro, Sragen, Ngawi, Demak, Grobogan, Lampung, to South Sumatra.

Arief predicts that this time the national rice production produced is quite high. In fact, the figure reached 3 to 3.5 million tons, exceeding the national consumption requirement.

"It is necessary to submit a national expansion update, prices will begin to be corrected as the harvest runs, the figure is 3-3.5 million tons from our needs of 2.5 to 2.6 (million tons)," said Arief.