Bapanas: Rice Imports Do Not Drop Prices At Farmers' Level

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi emphasized that rice imports are carried out in a measured manner and do not drop prices at the farm level.

"So we convey that this is a measurable import. We don't want to drop blindly either," said Head of Bacanas Arief during a hearing with Commission IV of the Indonesian Parliament in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday 3 April.

He made this statement in relation to the assignment of Perum Bulog at the end of 2022 to bring in 500 thousand tons of rice from Thailand, and Vietnam to Myanmar, the realization of which by the end of February 2023 had reached 98.5 percent or 492,863 tons.

"Even though imports are implemented, we can say that prices at the farm level are still very good," he said.

Arief further said that Bulog's rice stock as of March 31, 2023, reached 245,223 tons of which 95.29 percent was Government Rice Reserve (CBP) stock and the other 4.71 percent was commercial stock.

In detail, the CBP came from domestic procurement with a total of 52,003 tons, then 588 tons of reprocessed (repros) results, 168,087 tons from abroad, and 12,983 tons from domestic transfers.

Regarding the price of rice which is still expensive, Arief emphasized that rice production from August 2022 to January 2023 was still below the needs of the public's consumption which had caused a deficit.

Likewise with production in February 2023, which was initially observed by KSA BPS data, rice production reached 2.86 million tons but was corrected by 820 thousand tons due to flooding and crop failure in 31 thousand hectares of rice fields.

In total, production from January to April 2023 is projected to reach 13.37 million tons with a total consumption of 10.15 million tons, which means a surplus of 3.22 million tons. However, in May 2023, it is predicted that there will be a deficit of 430 thousand tons again because rice production only reached 2.11 million tons while consumption reached 2.54 million tons.

"Our need is 2.5 million a month, the surplus as of April is only 3.22 million tons. Then in 2022, the surplus is only half a month of 1.34 million, that's only half a month. That is why the price is high because the surplus is only half a month," he said.