Oplosan Rice Case, Minister Of Agriculture Amran: It's Been 10 Years, Losses In One Year Rp99 Trillion

Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman during a working meeting with Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives, in Jakarta, Wednesday, July 16. (Photo: Ministry of Agriculture Public Relations)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman revealed that the practice of mixing rice sold on the market with premium labels has been going on for a long time and has caused great losses to the state and society.

The loss reached IDR 99 trillion per year.

He said the figure could be much bigger if tracking was carried out on practices that had been going on for years.

"If this is Rp99 trillion, it is a loss to the community in one year. But if this happens for 5 or 10 years, the number will definitely be greater. Because this is not a new incident, this has been going on for a long time," he explained in a working meeting with Commission IV DPR RI, Jakarta, Wednesday, July 16.

"But later the figure will no longer be Rp. 100 trillion, definitely above if this is traced back. So the loss to the community is not today, but the brand (of rice marketed) has been around for a long time, not just this year," continued Amran.

In fact, Amran revealed, the supply stabilization program and food prices (SPHP) were also misused, where most of the rice that should have been sold cheap was actually mixed into premium rice.

"We estimate state losses with the team but we leave them with law enforcement. This existing SPHP is currently under investigation, the SPHP is handed over to the store, 20 percent storefront, 80 percent is mixed into premium. This is a state loss," said Amran.

Amran explained that the modus operandi of business actors is to sell bulk rice as premium rice only by changing the packaging, not the quality.

This makes the selling price soar, even though the product quality does not increase.

"This is ordinary rice, the price of premium is sold. Just change the bulk rice to premium. So what goes up is price, not quality," he said.

Amran reviewed the findings of mixed rice and the total loss of this case.

He said that the practice of monitoring the quality of rice had been carried out before, and even resulted in firm action.

One example is the closure of the large factory of PT IBU in 2017.

"We actually did this before, even closed the factory. If I'm not mistaken, the brand is Maknyuss, the company PT IBU. So we haven't checked it since yesterday, it's been 7 years ago," he said.

The Minister of Agriculture stated that the Ministry of Agriculture continues to cooperate with law enforcement officials to explore this case further.

He emphasized the importance of decisive action so that fraudulent practices in distribution and sale of rice can be stopped in order to protect farmers and consumers.