Had Langka, Rice Supply At The Market Was Confirmed By The Palace To Return To Normal

Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi (ANTARA/Fathur Rochman)

JAKARTA - Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said the supply of rice in the market had returned to normal after experiencing scarcity.

"We monitor every day and thank God today, a few days ago everything was normal," said Prasetyo as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, August 15.

He explained that the scarcity occurred in a short time and was triggered by the practice of mixing rice and selling it at a higher price than the provisions.

The government, he said, then took intervention steps to maintain price availability and stability.

"The market is intervened by the government, that's why we have strength. With us having rice reserves in the hands of the government, so that when something happens we make efforts to maintain the availability and stability of prices in the field," he said.

In a state speech at the MPR Annual Session, President Prabowo Subianto announced that Indonesia is currently currently in a surplus of rice production, and the national rice reserve stock reaches more than 4 million tons, which is the highest figure in the history of the Republic of Indonesia.

Previously, Yeka Ombudsman member Hendra Fatika asked the government to immediately find a shortcut as a solution to overcome the current condition of scarcity of rice.

Some time ago, he said the Ombudsman had checked the condition of rice stocks to traditional markets and to supermarkets. As a result, rice is already in a rare condition because the cheapest one is sold at a price of Rp. 12 thousand per kilogram.

"And it turns out that the scarcity of stocks is confirmed, there are large mills that usually have 30 thousand tons, now only two thousand tons. Some have five thousand tons, now 200 tons," said Yeka.

He said the government needed to really mitigate the problem of scarcity of rice because the time was not much.

"Because if the rice problem is really not handled, it will have an impact on other issues," he added.