Bulog Policy Is Considered Important To Manage Risks In The Food Sector

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Perum Bulog revealed that the long-term food stabilization policy is important because it can manage risks.

"One of the reasons why Bulog proposed or gave aspirations for the need for a long-term food stabilization policy is to also manage these kinds of risks," said President Director of Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi, in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, April 26.

Bayu explained, if we have a long-term program, the risk of currency exchange can be at least slightly reduced by hedging or using a long-term purchase contract.

"I'm not only saying to import but also to within the country, it's important to have a long-term stabilization policy, not because we want long-term imports but we can also make plans and take steps to mitigate and anticipate the risks that may occur," said Bayu again.

Bayu explained, for imports carried out by Bulog, especially rice and corn, it was entirely due to assignments from the government. As a result, if there is an increase or strengthening of the United States (US) dollar and a weakening of the rupiah, then it is direct, in the form of multiplying the tonnage multiplied by the exchange rate.

"If the exchange rate increases by 10 percent, the total cost requirement to pay for imports will increase by 10 percent, that's all. So it's directly the nature. The assumption that the dollar used in calculating Bulog costs is the assumption of the state budget, so you can see the difference between the current real US dollars and the assumption that the state budget is, that's where the increase in Bulog costs occurs," he also said.

This country still needs to maintain food stability in the long term. Food stability is not just a short-term affair or year-on-year, but it should be something that has perspectives including then long-term vision planning.

"We certainly imagine that Indonesia will increase its income per capacity, we are projected to become the fifth largest country in the world. Even then, food stability will still be important. We see that big and advanced countries now that they all have policies and mechanisms to maintain food stability," said Bayu.

Thus, he said again, his aspiration is for Indonesia to have a long-term food stability policy. As part of long-term food stability, namely the existence of food social safety nets.

Even in developed countries, even though there is a mechanism to guarantee and ensure that people who are less fortunate than others, there must be a safety net, especially for food.

This is an important aspiration. In that context, of course, it depends on the government, for example, food assistance is a form of food social safety net, he said.

According to Bayu, part of the long-term food stability policy is that there must be a more systematic effort to support farmers better in producing food.