Government Decides To Remove Premium And Medium Rice Castes

JAKARTA - The government has decided to remove the clustering of rice in the premium and medium categories.

Later, it will only be divided into two types, namely general rice and special rice.

This plan was conveyed by the Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan after a coordination meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Arman Sulaiman, Head of Bapanas, Arief Prasetyo Adi, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, to the Food Task Force, at the Coordinating Ministry for Food, Jakarta, Friday, July 25.

The man who is familiarly called Zulhas said that the plan to remove the clustering of rice was decided after observing various findings from the Attorney General's Office, Bareskrim Polri, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Food Task Force.

"Seeing the development of the findings from Jampidsus, Bareskrim, Mr. Minister of Agriculture, the Task Force, that rice is rice. Only sometimes buying rice can be given various bags, you can order this brand, you can order this brand but the rice is the same," he said.

Zulhas said rice is a basic need that involves the livelihoods of many people and is one of President Prabowo Subianto's priority programs. Therefore, no party should seek excessive profit from the food program.

Later in this new policy, continued Zulhas, the government will only recognize two categories. First, general rice produced by domestic farmers and receive subsidies from the government, both in the form of fertilizer, irrigation, and other assistance.

Then, continued Zulhas, the second is special rice which is determined based on permits and certification from the government, such as fragrant pandan rice, glutinous rice, or imported rice for medical needs.

"Well, looking at that experience, we will make only one type of rice later. Rice is rice, no longer medium and premium. Yes, rice has rice, there is one more called special rice. So there are only two," he said.

For your information, the plan to remove the clustering of the medium and premium rice categories has emerged in the midst of the current case of mixing rice.

Previously, the National Police revealed allegations of mixing and violating rice quality in a number of parts of Indonesia.

This finding began with an irregularity in rice prices which actually rose in the middle of the main harvest period, when rice stocks were abundant.

The Head of the National Police's Food Task Force as well as the Director of Special Economic Crimes at Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Helfi Assegaf, said that the increase in unreasonable prices was first conveyed by the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman.

"On June 26, 2025, the Minister of Agriculture conveyed the findings in the field on the quality and price of anomalous rice. During the main harvest period, rice surpluses but prices rose tremendously. This is an abnormal trend," said Helfi in Jakarta, Thursday, July 24.

Based on these findings, the Minister of Agriculture conducted unannounced inspections of markets in various regions during the period 6 to 23 June 2025. As a result, it was found that rice with quality and prices were not in accordance with the provisions in 10 provinces.

Of the total 268 rice samples taken, 212 of them do not meet the standards, both in terms of quality, weight of packaging, and price.

"For premium rice, quality mismatch reached 85.56 percent. Then the discrepancy for the highest retail price (HET) was 59.78 percent, and the heavy mismatch in packaging was 21.66 percent," said Helfi.