Bulog Boss Says 50 Percent Of Rice Stock Spreads In The Household

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi spoke about national rice stocks.

He said, 50 percent of the national rice supply is mostly in households. Including farmers' houses.

According to Bayu, the average household stores 1 to 5 kilograms (kg) of rice.

So, he continued, if the total rice in people's homes could reach 50 percent of the national stock.

Actually, the stock in Indonesia is almost suspected, I think the figure is a bit out of date, but it is suspected that 50 percent of the rice stock is in the household. Including farmers' households," he said during a discussion on SOEs, at the BUMN Meteoral Media Center, Jakarta, Monday, March 18.

Bayu added that there was a phenomenon that occurred at the end of 2023. At that time, the price of grain and rice went up, farmers thought when they were going to sell the rice.

Karena itu, kata Bayu, banyak petani yang menyimpan pasokan beras dan gabah dibandingkan dengan sebelum-sebelumnya.

"So the farmer starts to think that if the rice is sold, the grain is, then he will imagine that he has to buy rice at an expensive price. So quite a lot of farmers keep it or in other words, farmers save more of the proceeds, compared to before," he said.

Regarding the percentage of rice in the household, Bayu said that the National Food Agency (Bapanas) would soon release their latest data.

"I heard the news that the National Food Agency will soon release the results of their study of stocks (in the household). And it is suspected, we will see what the results will be," he said.

Apart from being in the household, Bayu said rice stocks were also stored by business actors or organizations. For example, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, pesantren and others.

They also keep stock because they take into account many members of their organization and they have to be provided with food. That's why they also have rice stocks," he explained.

Rice stock, continued Bayu, is also stored by traders ranging from small to large traders like the one in Cipinang. Then, there is also stock owned by the government.

"What I can confirm is that Bulog's stock today is around 1 million tons," he said.