Jokowi: There Is No Relationship With Sharing Food Aid With The Expensive Rice Prices

President Joko Widodo and Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi. (Photo: Doc. Badanas)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized the scarcity and high price of rice that is currently happening, has nothing to do with the rice food assistance program run by the government.

Instead of making scarcity and high rice prices, Jokowi said that the assistance program was actually an effort to hold prices back from rising.

"It has nothing to do with rice food assistance, because this is precisely the one who can control it, because the supply is through this assistance to the community. In fact, it holds prices from going up, otherwise it jumps. This is a supply demand law," Jokowi said in an official statement, Thursday, February 15.

Jokowi asked Perum Bulog to supply rice to meet the market.

He is optimistic that supply will increase along with the arrival of the main harvest.

"Anyway, the market asks for anything, give, the regions ask for anything, give, both SPHP rice and commercial rice," he said.

Meanwhile, Head of NFA Arief Prasetyo Adi revealed that the rice market operation program or Stabilization of Food Supply and Prices (SPHP) will continue to be accelerated.

"Regarding the SPHP, the President has ordered the National Food Agency together with Bulog, of course, to pour a total of 250,000 tons of rice. Usually in a month we budget for around 80 to 100,000 tons, but the President has ordered it to double to 250,000 tons," said Arief.

Arief said that this SPHP rice is very much needed for people who do not receive rice food assistance. As is known, the assistance program targets 22 million beneficiary families (KPM).

Kita ingin masyarakat dapat kembali mudah menghadapi beras Bulog di modern market dan pasar tradisional. Dalam waktu waktu ini, kita akan terus memenuhi market. Target penyaluran SPHP di tahun ini 1,2 juta ton, terangnya.

To note, Perum Bulog has poured the supply of SPHP rice into modern retailers.

As of February 12, the total distribution of SPHP rice has reached 3,657 tons.

Regional Offices (Kanwil) with the highest distributions include DKI Jakarta and Banten 2,009 tons, East Java 637 tons, and Central Java 192 tons.

Meanwhile, the realization of rice food assistance before being temporarily stopped until last February 7, has touched 185,000 tons.

The distribution target in the first 2 months of 2024 is 440,000 tons.