Government Supply Sugar And Cooking Oil Via Sea Highway To Eastern Indonesia

Illustration/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government through the National Food Agency together with the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of SOEs sent supplies of sugar and cooking oil for the first time via the sea highway from Belawan, North Sumatra to Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi in a statement quoted in Jakarta, Friday, April 29, stated that the move was an effort to ensure food availability and to reduce food logistics costs to eastern Indonesia.

"The distribution of bulk cooking oil and sugar by optimizing sea toll facilities is a solution for the availability and stabilization of food prices, especially in certain areas, such as Eastern Indonesia, where generally there are still obstacles in food logistics due to high logistics costs or costs and an impact on price increases for products or services. food commodities in certain areas," Arief said as quoted by Antara. The departure for sugar and cooking oil using the MV Asia Pratama ship departed on April 28, 2022 from Belawan Port in Medan, North Sumatra with an estimated arrival in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on May 10, 2022.

He explained that the food distribution flow through the sea highway is from port to port, after that it is sent to warehouses, then distributed to distributors and distributed to market traders. and sugar is currently a concern of the government and society.

An expert at the Minister of Transportation, Andre Mulpyana, said that the sea highway facility is very effective for food distribution throughout Indonesia because it is able to reach food to underdeveloped, remote, outermost, and border areas.

Meanwhile, President Director of PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (Persero) Frans Marganda Tambunan said that the initial shipment via sea toll access, Food BUMN Holding ID FOOD, sent 800 tons of sugar and 300 tons of bulk cooking oil.

ID FOOD Group cooperates with local distribution in Kupang, so that after the cargo arrives, the goods are immediately distributed to local market traders and local merchant associations who are safe to sell directly to consumers. The process of distributing cooking oil and sugar to a number of areas in Kupang NTT also collaborated with other sector SOEs, such as PT Pos Indonesia for tracking container shipments via trucks to the Dispensing location and also PT Pelindo as a port operator.