Government Guarantees Food Availability Amid The National Disaster COVID-19

Illustration. (Photo: Perum Bulog)

JAKARTA - The government continues to monitor food prices and supplies on a weekly basis. The goal is to maintain the availability of staple food supplies in the face of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 National Disaster.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto emphasized that his party would continue to ensure the availability of food stocks. Because, according to the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), food cannot be lacking.

Airlangga explained that in general the stock positions, supplies and prices of 11 staple food commodities had been discussed. Estimates of the availability and needs of several main staple foodstuffs, especially rice, corn, beef, buffalo, sugar and garlic are guaranteed to be sufficient to meet demand.

"Guaranteed enough to meet the needs," said Airlangga, in Jakarta, Tuesday, March 17.

There are 3.5 million tons of rice stock now scattered in Bulog, mills and traders. It is estimated that the main harvest will occur in March, April and May 2020 so that at the end of May 2020 there will be a rice stock of 7.7 million tons.

Meanwhile, the stock of corn at the end of February 2020 was 661,000 tons and the harvest in March was estimated at 6.2 million tons.

Regarding the stabilization of sugar prices, Airlangga said, it would be carried out by distributing 20,000 tons of sugar by Bulog at a price of IDR 10,500 per kilogram (kg).

"Apart from that, the SOEs assigned to supply sugar for consumption of 150,000 tonnes will soon be realized," he said.

Regarding the availability of garlic, previously the Minister of Trade, Agus Suparmanto, reported that his party had issued an additional Import Approval (PI) of 70 thousand tons. As for the stabilization of meat prices, he will also immediately realize the plan to import 170 thousand tons of buffalo and 120 thousand tons of beef.

Airlangga said that the results of the discussion of the Food Coordination Meeting will soon be followed up by the relevant ministries / agencies and monitoring of the progress will be carried out at the next Rakortas scheduled for the end of this week.

Bulog Guarantee Safe Food Supply

Director of Human Resources and General of Perum Bulog Bagya Mulyanto said, Perum Bulog emphasized that it would guarantee a safe food supply during the handling of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"BULOG has a stock of 1.6 million tons equivalent to rice spread throughout Indonesia and 300 thousand tons in the Bulog Kelapa Gading Jakarta warehouse, so there is no reason for rice prices to increase during the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Perum Bulog also guarantees convenience in reaching these food needs through Market Operations with the name Price Stabilization Supply Activities (KPSH). Perum Bulog always conducts massive market operations throughout the working area of Perum Bulog in order to maintain stable rice prices at the consumer level.

On the other hand, Bagya explained, Perum Bulog continues to coordinate with the central and local governments to help the government program succeed by stabilizing prices during the handling of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.