JAKARTA - The National Police has revealed allegations of the practice of mixing and violating rice quality in a number of parts of Indonesia. This finding originated from an irregularity in rice prices which actually rose in the middle of the main harvest period, when rice stocks were abundant.
The Head of the National Police's Food Task Force as well as the Director of Special Economic Crimes at Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Helfi Assegaf, said that the increase in unreasonable prices was first conveyed by the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman.
"On June 26, 2025, the Minister of Agriculture conveyed the findings in the field on the quality and price of anomalous rice. During the main harvest period, rice surpluses but prices rose tremendously. This is an abnormal trend," said Helfi in Jakarta, Thursday, July 24.
Based on these findings, the Minister of Agriculture conducted unannounced inspections of markets in various regions during the period 6 to 23 June 2025. As a result, it was found that rice with quality and prices were not in accordance with the provisions in 10 provinces.
Of the total 268 rice samples taken, 212 of them do not meet the standards, both in terms of quality, weight of packaging, and price.
"For premium rice, quality mismatch reached 85.56 percent. Then the discrepancy for the highest retail price (HET) was 59.78 percent, and the heavy mismatch in packaging was 21.66 percent," said Helfi.
In the medium rice category, the situation is more concerning. Quality discrepancies were recorded at 88.24 percent, prices above HET at 95.12 percent, and packaging weight mismatches reached 90.63 percent.
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From these violations, the potential loss suffered by the community is very large. The National Police noted that losses due to this practice could reach Rp99.35 trillion per year.
"Consumer losses per year are estimated at IDR 99.35 trillion. In detail, premium rice is IDR 34.21 trillion, and medium rice is IDR 65.14 trillion," said Helfi.
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