Buwas Guarantee Of Government Rice Reserves Enough Until After Eid

President Director of Perum Bulog Budi Waseso. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The President Director of the Public Company for Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog) Budi Waseso guarantees the government's rice reserves (CBP) for market operations will be sufficient until after Lebaran 2023, although there will be no big harvest.

In fact, Buwas, Budi Waseso's nickname, emphasized that the CBP stock does not include domestic harvests. The main harvest is predicted to take place from March to April 2023.

"Our CBP is sufficient until after Eid if there is no harvest. But if we don't have a harvest, we'll see because I'm now given the task of Pak Arief (Head of Badanas) absorbing 2.4 million tons," he said when met in Kembangan, West Jakarta, Wednesday, February 8.

As is known, Perum Bulog received an assignment to import 500,000 tons of rice. Rice from various countries entered in stages until the last 15 February. This imported rice is also the government's rice reserve.

Moreover, said Buwas, Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo also said that there are several regions that have carried out rice harvests.

Therefore, Buwas is not too worried about additional harvests. This is because Bulog has sufficient reserves to carry out market operations.

"So don't worry too much, can we not have any production? Yes, right? Now it's started production, right. Yesterday the Minister of Agriculture also exposed that there was already production," he said.

Based on the latest data from Bulog, until now the total rice stock controlled by Bulog is only around 529,000 tons.

The stock is a combination of rice in warehouses, imported rice on the way, as well as rice in the process of moving between regions.

The amount of stock consists of 523.000 tons of CBP and 5,000 tons of commercial rice.

Meanwhile, Bulog's total domestic production absorption during January only reached 10,000 tons and will continue to grow over the harvest period.