Jokowi: Be Careful In Food Affairs, 22 Countries Have Stopped Food Exports

DOK/President Jokowi/PHOTO via Instagram Jokowi

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo reminded the public regarding the condition of the world food supply chain, which now has 22 countries that have stopped exporting food commodities.

This was conveyed by the president to the volunteers during the Gathering Event for the Jokowi Team of Seven Volunteers at Ecovention Ancol, North Jakarta, Saturday, June 11.

"Be careful with matters of food, food production. Now in January, only three countries stopped exporting food, now 22 countries have not exported their food," said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) as quoted by Antara.

The President explained that tens of these countries stopped their food commodity exports to meet domestic needs.

One country, namely India, has suspended wheat exports to protect domestic needs and suppress food inflation.

This export ban step was taken when the world was experiencing a shortage of foodstuffs such as wheat. This is due to the war that took place between Russia and Ukraine, two countries which are also the world's largest producers of wheat.

Therefore, the President warned that Indonesia still had to import wheat and a number of other commodities, such as corn and soybeans.

However, for the commodity of rice, as the main food ingredient, the President said that Indonesia should be grateful because in the last three years it has no longer imported rice.

"Be careful with rice, we usually import 2 million tons, we haven't imported rice for the past three years. We should be grateful for this, thanks to the dam that we built," the President said.

The President added that the irrigation system for food is supported by the construction of 29 dams which have already been realized from the target of 65 dams.