Bulog Says New Rice Prices Can Drop By IDR 200 Per Kg Even Though It Has Entered The Harvest Season

Director of Supply Chain and Public Service Bulog Mokhamad Suyamto (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Public Company of the Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog) revealed that the price of unhulled rice began to gradually fall along with the entry of the harvest season. Even so, the price of rice in the market is estimated to only decrease by Rp200 per kilogram (kg).

Bulog's Director of Supply Chain and Public Service, Mokhamad Suyamto, explained that several areas have entered the harvest season, so that the price of harvested dry unhulled rice (GKP) gradually fell to around Rp. 7,000 to Rp. 7,200 from the previous Rp. 8,000 per kg.

"Alhamdulillah, now that we have started harvesting in several locations, the price of dry rice harvest also tends to fall, which yesterday was above Rp. 8,000, now it is Rp. 7,000," he said in a discussion at the Ministry of SOEs, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 20.

Along with the decline in the price of unhulled rice, continued Suyamto, the price of rice in mills was also corrected. The supply of rice to modern retail has also begun to increase and is believed to gradually reduce the price of rice in the market.

"Rice at the milling producer is Rp. 12,000 to Rp. 13,000. Hopefully, it will go down at the consumer level soon," he explained.

Although the price of rice at the milling level has dropped, Suyamto said that the price of rice at the consumer level could only decrease by Rp200 per kg.

"We are monitoring that there has indeed been a decline. Indeed, it is not yet significant, it is still around Rp. 100 to Rp. 200," he said.

Previously, the President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurti stated that the price of rice would be difficult to return to its original point like last year. Where the national average price of premium rice is priced at IDR 12,500 per kilogram (kg).

"According to our calculations, at Bulog the price will be difficult to return to its original point like a year ago," he said during a discussion on BUMN Spokes, at the BUMN Meteor Media Center, Jakarta, Monday, March 18.

The reason, said Bayu, is that the current price of grain production is very high. The labor wage is one of the contributors to the increase in the price of unhulled rice.

The labor wage, which is the cost of producing unhulled rice, has increased. UMR is increasing, meaning that later the informal labor wage will increase," said Bayu.

Not only labor wages, according to Bayu, the increase in land rental prices and fertilizer costs is also part of contributing to the increase in the price of grain production.

"With the international increase in fuel increases, fertilizers will also increase. So the production costs faced by farmers have increased," said Bayu.

"So I think we should also see it as a real factor and of course we are not happy, not happy to see it, but in fact it is," he continued.