Pak Jokowi! Rice Prices Are Still High In The Regions, Even Though Lebaran Will Soon Be

President Joko Widodo when checking the availability of Bulog rice (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA The Central Statistics Agency reports that rice prices in the majority of Indonesian cities are still at a high level.

Deputy for Distribution and Services Statistics, BPS Pudji Ismartini, said that based on the data collected, it showed that 60 cities experienced an increase in rice prices.

"Of the 90 cities observed, there are 60 cities that have experienced an increase in rice prices, 29 cities have decreased, and one city has not changed," he said when told the media crew on Monday, April 3.

According to Pudji, spatially the increase in rice prices occurred in all regions (average single digits), both on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, to Nusa Tenggara and Maluku/Papua.

The highest rice price increase was recorded in Luwuk with an increase of 25.4 percent. Meanwhile, the deepest decline occurred in Mataram City, which was 8.5 percent on a monthly basis (month to month/mtm)," he said.

Pudji added that the retail rice price increased by around 11 percent (year on year/yoy) to Rp. 12,795 per kg at the end of March 2023. This figure is higher than the same period the previous year, which was Rp. 11,589 per kg.

Likewise, when compared to monthly, which increased by 0.7 percent, from the previous IDR 12,707 per kg in February 2023 to IDR 12,795 per kg in March 2023.

In previous editorial reports, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) believes that the amount of rice supply will be higher along with the ongoing harvest in several regions.

"We hope that the harvest will start and then enter the rice mill, come out as rice, and immediately enter the market. This means that if the supply is large and automatically the price will decrease," said the Head of State at the end of last month.

To note, the harvest period will take place from March to May 2023. BPS itself said rice prices would gradually return to normal in the next few months.

The reason is, the price reduction is suspected to have not been transmitted from the milling level to the wholesale or retail level which takes time.