Bulog Boss Claims Food Assistance Presses Rice Inflation Rate, But Prices Haven't Dropped

President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi claimed that the distribution of food aid, especially rice, has succeeded in suppressing the rate of rice inflation that occurs in the country.

As is known, Bulog distributed two stages of rice food assistance, with a total aid of 641,000 tons in the first phase and 853,000 tons in the second stage.

The amount is around 1.49 million tons of food aid that has been distributed to 21.3 million beneficiary families (KPM).

The food aid distributed by Bulog in 2023 aims to stabilize food prices, especially rice.

Initially, in February 2023, rice inflation reached 2.63 percent.

According to Bayu, after implementing the first phase of food assistance, there was a significant decline in rice inflation, reaching 0.7 percent in March, 0.55 percent in April, and even only 0.02 percent in May.

Furthermore, Bayu said this also happened to the second phase of food assistance, where rice inflation, which was originally high in September, fell to 1.72 percent in October, 0.43 percent in November, and remained at 0.43 percent in December.

"Food assistance, which is also supported by SPHP in 2023, has reached 1.2 million tons, which is able to withstand price fluctuations, capable of making our rice price flat, relatively flat. And this shows the success of the food assistance," he said at a press conference, at the Bulog Office, Jakarta, Thursday, January 11.

Even so, Bayu admitted that the food assistance program and SPHP had not been able to significantly reduce rice prices.

"Why haven't they managed to lower prices yet? Because the condition of the production is still difficult, it has even continued to this day," he said.

For your information, food assistance in 2024 will be increased to 22 million KPM from the previous 21.3 million KPM. The distribution of rice food aid is distributed evenly throughout Indonesia without exception.