Coordinating Minister Airlangga: Government Strengthens National Food Security To Anticipate Global Crisis

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA – Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto revealed that the government is committed to continuing to maintain and improve national food security.

According to him, these efforts are realized through increased production, efforts to diversify food, efficiency in food distribution, the use of technology to increase food production and quality, as well as strengthening stocks.

"Following on the President's directive regarding the availability of strategic food, which until July was relatively safe, both in terms of supply and price stability," he said in a press statement on Friday, July 1.

Airlangga added that his party ensured that Indonesian rice was sufficient until the end of 2024. Even in the last three years, Ri has stopped importing rice.

"Based on data and balance sheets presented at an internal meeting with the President, the stock as of December 2021 is 7 million tons and Bulog's stock is more than 1 million tons. This means that the export of 200 thousand tons is still safe," he said.

On this occasion, Coordinating Minister Airlangga informed that his party would continue to establish communication with the relevant ministers, the Director of Bulog, and the Ministry of Trade to discuss aspects of regulations, rules, permits and readiness for the implementation of the rice export process which will soon be carried out.

Furthermore, he also explained that the government is committed to providing Bulog rice assistance for the 2022 period for 19.14 million Beneficiary Families (KPM) and revised regulations (Perpres 48 of 2016) to strengthen Bulog's assignment.

Meanwhile, several provisions that will be regulated include, among others, the use of CBP (government rice reserves), the release of CBP stock, the criteria for degrading rice stock and the use of funds for stock release.

"The government will distribute 50 thousand tons of corn to micro and small farmers by extending the Bulog assignment until July 31, 2022," he said.

"In addition, the policy transformation for subsidized fertilizers is still being finalized, starting from the refocusing of the subsidy target to 2 types of fertilizers and 9 strategic priority commodities, digital transformation and revision of several necessary regulations," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.