To NTB, The National Food Agency Establishes A Synergy For BUMN And The Ministry Of Transportation To Streamline Food Distribution

Head of the National Food Agency Arif Prasityo Adi (center) during a visit to a corn warehouse in Sumbawa. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (NFA) establishes a synergy between BUMN and the Ministry of Transportation to accelerate the mobilization of food products. This step is carried out by optimizing the function of the port in an effort to accelerate the flow of goods, especially food.

"NTB is one of the largest food producers, one of which is corn and corn harvests continue to be abundant, but cannot be distributed quickly due to limited food logistics," said Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi when inspecting the surplus corn harvest area in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara. (NTB) quoted from its official statement quoted by Antara, Sunday, June 26.

As an effort to orchestrate good food governance, he continues to encourage the synergy of various relevant stakeholders in the distribution of food between regions, so that it is evenly distributed and affordable to all regions. Stakeholder orchestration is in accordance with President Joko Widodo's direction at the Plenary Cabinet Session that a good orchestration is needed between Ministries / Institutions, BUMN, Private and regional to meet domestic needs and increase food production for Indonesia's food export potential.

“NFA together with the Ministry of Transportation, Bulog, PT Berdikari member of ID FOOD, PINSAR, PT. Seger Agro Nusantara, as well as the West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Government, Sumbawa Regency Government, and Dompu Regency, are working together to accelerate food logistics," he said.

Today all food stakeholders are present, which means it's time to collaborate together in building a food ecosystem. Supported by good port facilities, it will certainly smooth distribution so that farmers' production is quickly absorbed properly.

"The corn production here is extraordinary, so if it is absorbed at a good price, farmers will also be enthusiastic about planting," he said.

If the food ecosystem is already running, Arief believes that the food production in NTB such as corn which is quite abundant will become a source of food and can even be encouraged for export.

“If we have enough stock, we can save it until the next harvest. The rest we encourage exports, this is the time for us to compete outside according to the direction of the President," he said.

On the same occasion, the Expert Staff of the Minister of Transportation, Andre Mulyana, revealed that his party would focus on helping to unravel the bottlenecks of food commodity outflows by sea as an effort to facilitate food distribution between regions.

“In NTB, we do a lot of studies to open the route so that the bottleneck doesn't happen. As long as there is a market, as long as there is a source, as long as there are goods, we will optimize it," he said.

To speed up loading and unloading activities, especially corn, which is the mainstay of this region, efforts will be made to accelerate the productivity of the Badas Sumbawa port by increasing the number of operational cranes and grain pumps.

"Similarly, at the Port of Bima, it is necessary to expand port facilities and increase the frequency of ships," he said.