JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Amran Sulaiman said that food stocks ahead of Ramadan to Eid al-Fitr are in a safe condition. He emphasized that in the next two months Indonesia is in surplus and has "more than enough" reserves for 11-12 basic commodities.
"Food stocks face the holy month of Ramadan... the next two months are surplus, more than enough," Amran said after a meeting at the Presidential Palace Complex in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 11.
Amran said that nine basic commodities were self-sufficient, even some exports, such as cooking oil, rice, and red onions. For red onions, he claimed that Indonesia was self-sufficient and by 2025 exported around 1,000 tons. However, he admitted that the main problem was not production, but the supply chain.
Therefore, the government is pressing price control through HET (Highest Retail Price) and HPP (Government Purchase Price). Amran said that strategically monitored commodities include rice, cooking oil, meat, chicken, and eggs.
Another issue he answered was a private protest about meat imports which were considered to fall more to SOEs. Amran denied it. He said that the import of cattle has been 100 percent private and the figure is around 700 thousand heads. According to him, the share of SOEs is needed not to be "played with", but for the government's reserves so that it can intervene when prices soar.
"If the government doesn't have reserves, can it stabilize prices? It can't," he said. He even emphasized that if SOEs did not intervene when prices rose, they could be sanctioned up to being removed.
Amran also denied claims that the private sector was not involved in the planning of the commodity balance. He said the meeting was held with importers and business actors, and he chaired the meeting at the National Food Agency.
To prevent a spike in prices ahead of Ramadan, Amran claimed the government asked feedlotters (cattle fattening) and RPH (animal slaughterhouse) not to raise prices. If anyone raises it, he said, he would be reprimanded and monitored by a monitoring team throughout Indonesia, including involving krimsus in each police. Regarding the import permit for meat, he asked to be asked to the Ministry of Trade.
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