Bulog Launches Simultaneous SPHP Rice GPM At 5,000 Points Throughout Indonesia

Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Perum Bulog launched the Cheap Food Movement (GPM) for Rice Stabilization of Supply and Food Prices (SPHP) simultaneously at 5,000 points throughout Indonesia. This movement is here to suppress price fluctuations in a number of areas.

The SPHP Rice GPM launching ceremony was held at the Fatmawati Large Post Office, South Jakarta, today, Friday, July 18. This event was also attended by the Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, the Minister of Agriculture, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of SOEs, the Head of the National Food Agency, and other government agencies.

President Director of Perum Bulog Ahmad Rizal said that the SPHP program is an important instrument for the government to maintain people's purchasing power and control food inflation.

"BULOG is committed to ensuring the availability and smooth distribution evenly," said Ahmad Rizal in an official statement, Friday, July 18.

Rizal said the GPM SPHP was launched simultaneously at more than 5,000 points throughout Indonesia, by providing quality and affordable SPHP rice.

"In this activity, direct sales were made to the community at the Highest Retail Price (HET) of Rp. 12,500 per kg or Rp. 62,500 per pack for the Java region," he said.

As an effort to expand distribution coverage, Rizal said Perum Bulog collaborated with PT Pos Indonesia, PT Pupuk Indonesia, ID Food, and PT Perkebunan Nusantara III, as well as other government agencies.

"This collaboration aims to ensure that SPHP rice can reach the community to remote areas of the country," he said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Zulkifli Hasan, said that Bulog carried out market operations because there were several areas that experienced price increases.

Therefore, market operations with a SPHP of 1.3 million tons were carried out, at a price of Rp. 62,500 per 5 kg or Rp. 12,500 per kg for this region. Hopefully this step can help stabilize the rising price," he said.

Similarly, Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, added that this was a massive market operation to anticipate that rice prices would not rise.

This is to anticipate that rice prices do not rise when our stock is abundant. Our target based on yesterday's coordination meeting results is to distribute 360,000 tons for Food Assistance and 1.3 million tons for SPHP, a total of more than 1.5 million tons are moved nationally. We believe that in the next 1 to 2 weeks, prices will fall," he explained.