Minister Of Agriculture Claims Food Availability Ahead Of Eid Al-Fitr Is Safe

Rice illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo is optimistic that the availability of strategic food ahead of Ramadan and Eid can meet people's consumption needs.

"Maintaining food availability until May 2020. The current prognosis, 11 staple foods are estimated to be sufficient," said Syahrul, quoted on Tuesday, February 18.

To maintain this availability, the Ministry of Agriculture admits that they still have to import several commodities, such as garlic, beef or buffalo, and sugar so that they are sufficient for domestic needs.

Meanwhile, in terms of price stability, the Ministry of Agriculture is holding a cheap market in February until the following months. The commodities sold are volatile food, such as garlic, red meat, cayenne pepper, red chilies, sugar and chicken meat.

"The Ministry of Agriculture also plans domestic supply or production through production centers for chilies, shallots and other horticultural commodities," said Syahrul.

This year, the Ministry of Agriculture targets the production of strategic food commodities for the needs of 2020. Rice production, he continued, is targeted to reach 59.15 million tons.

Meanwhile, corn production is targeted to reach 24.17 million tons; soybean 420,000 tons; shallot 1.66 million tons; large chili 1.35 million tons; cayenne pepper 1.47 million tons. In addition, the ministry is also targeting coffee production of 769,720 tons; 771,890 tonnes of cocoa; coconut 2.8 million tonnes.

"We are targeting a cow population of 18.78 million heads that produce 4.81 million tons of meat. Buffalo beef production is 432,910 tons, ”he continued.

With this production target, the government ensures that it will not import rice because the availability during January-March is considered sufficient. Moreover, the rice stock at the end of December reached 4.5 million tons.

From that figure, the estimated production reaches 14.2 million tonnes. The national demand estimate is 12.6 million tonnes.