Badanas Boss Committed To Control Rice Prices

Head of Badanas Amran Sulaiman (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) as well as Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman emphasized the government's commitment to maintaining rice price stability and affordability so that the community's food needs remain evenly met in all regions.

Amran said rice prices throughout Indonesia have shown a downward trend in recent times as a result of government control measures.

"The price of rice has dropped. So all of Indonesia yesterday has gone down. However, we must not be satisfied. God willing, the control will be much tighter in the future," Amran said quoting Antara.

"Even though prices have dropped, the government will not be complacent and will tighten supervision so that rice price stability is maintained in the future," he said, asserting.

"The point is, now the price of rice has dropped, but we must not be satisfied there. The government must be the controller," Amran said, explaining.

He said the Government through the National Food Agency (Bapanas) together with the Rice Price Control Task Force (Satgas) continued to intensify supervision of rice prices in accordance with the Highest Retail Price (HET). Supervision with this collaboration is implemented in all provinces.

"There are still those above HET, especially those that are not rice producers, such as the eastern region, in Papua. But some are encouraging. In Merauke, South Papua, because we make food estates there, that's a good rice price," said Amran.

He said data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that the number of regencies/cities that experienced a decline in rice prices until the fourth week of October 2025 continued to grow to 225 regencies/cities. This number increased by 25.69 percent compared to the first week of October 2025.

When viewed by province, until the fourth week of October, out of a total of 38 provinces, only five provinces recorded positive rice price developments.

Meanwhile, 33 other provinces experienced changes in rice prices minus or price depreciation. South Papua Province recorded a decrease in rice prices of up to minus 1.56 percent.

Meanwhile, he said BPS also noted that the national medium rice price until the fourth week of October had fallen 1.65 percent.

This figure, according to him, is a comparison to September 2025. Likewise, the condition of premium rice prices which was reported to have fallen 0.69 percent until the fourth week of October 2025.

The 2025 Rice Price Control Task Force was formed based on the Decree of the Head of the National Food Agency of the Republic of Indonesia Number 375 of 2025 dated October 20, 2025.

The regulation stipulates a membership arrangement consisting of directors to implementers in 38 provinces. Each region will be coordinated by the Regional Police Food Task Force.

In addition to implementing supervision through the Rice Price Control Task Force, the government through Perum Bulog also continues to optimize the distribution of rice for the Food Supply and Price Stabilization program (SPHP). This is to reduce rice prices at the consumer level, especially medium rice which is the main choice for the lower middle class.

As of October 30, 2025, the realization of national sales of SPHP rice has reached 564.6 thousand tons. Meanwhile, Bulog's rice stock is still very strong, which is 3.912 million tons.

Of this amount, the Government Rice Reserve (CBP) stock reaches 3.754 million tons and the rest is commercial stock.

Throughout 2025, Badanas has assigned Bulog to distribute CBP through various programs such as market operations, rice food assistance, and emergency disaster/state assistance.

As of October 30, CBP has been distributed to the public as much as 1.004 million tons and will continue to be accelerated until the end of the year.