Erick Thohir Prepares A BUMN Warehouse To Accommodate National Rice Production

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir, stated that his party is ready to support President Prabowo Subianto's direction to deal with the increase in national rice production this year.

Erick admitted that he had assigned several SOEs related to national food security programs, such as Perum BULOG, ID FOOD, Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company (PIHC), and Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) as well as SOEs that have distribution and logistics functions to prepare warehouses to accommodate national production rice.

The national production rice is expected to increase in the next 3 to 4 months.

"Following up on President Prabowo's direction to prepare temporary warehouses to anticipate an increase in national rice production, we immediately coordinate with SOEs involved in the national food security program to take a role and ensure the smooth process of storing and distributing rice," said Erick Thohir, in an official statement, in Jakarta, Thursday, April 24.

This directive, continued Erick, is in line with President Prabowo Subianto's vision to strengthen the food sector as the main pillar of national economic development.

"BUMN will optimize resources and technology to build efficient and effective additional warehouses so that they can be built in a short time and do not require large costs," he said.

In order to support national food security, continued Erick, Perum BULOG has an absorption target of 3 million tons of rice equivalent to farmers.

Until now, 1.5 million tons have been realized, equivalent to rice and the absorption target is optimistic that it will be achieved this year.

Meanwhile, the total rice stock controlled by BULOG has reached 3 million tons.

"BUMN will synergize with other government sectors to ensure the success of this program. Especially, conducting studies related to strategic locations for warehouse development, governance, and innovations used to increase the efficiency of national rice production storage," he said.