Fill In The Rice Stock 1.2 Million Tons: 500 Thousand From Imports For January-February 2023, 500 Thousand Others Absorbed From Farmers In March During The Grand Panen

Bulog rice stock. (Photo: Doc. Antara/Bulog)

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) stated that the rice stock that Perum Bulog must have in 2022 should ideally be 1.2 million tons, especially to meet the needs of government rice reserves (CBP).

However, according to the Director of Food Availability, Budi Wuryanto, the stock currently occupied by Bulog is not in an ideal condition to face Christmas and New Year's (Nataru) 2022/2023, namely until December 21, only 399,160 tons were recorded.

"The CBP stock in Bulog is only 399,160 tons, whereas ideally it is 1.2 million tons according to the government's target. Therefore, the government has added so that CBP can reach 1.2 million tons," he said, quoted by Antara, Saturday, December 24.

With the current condition of rice stock compared to monthly needs, he continued, it is still very far away, so the government in a limited coordination meeting (Rakortas) decided Bulog to import 500 thousand tons to strengthen CBP until January-February 2023.

"Imports of 500 thousand tons are the last option to meet CBP," said Budi.

Meanwhile, the remaining 500 thousand tons, Budi added, came from within the country. In March 2023 at the time of the main harvest, the government will encourage Bulog to immediately absorb unhulled rice/rice from farmers.

According to him, Bulog's thin stock of CBP is held, one of the factors is the high expenditure of rice from the KPSH program or market operations to maintain a fairly high price stabilization of rice since July. If in January, the price of medium rice was still around Rp. 10,900/kg, then in December it had reached Rp. 11,300/kg.

Meanwhile, the volume of KPSH rice which was previously below 100 thousand tons, in August reached 200 thousand tons. In fact, until the end of 2022, the volume of rice disbursed for the KPSH program reached 1.16 million tons.

"If Bulog's CBP stock is running low, it will be difficult for the government to reduce the rate of increase in rice prices. In fact, the increase in rice prices contributed greatly to inflation and other food increases," he said.

Meanwhile, Head of the Division of Operational Planning and Public Services Bulog Epi Sulandari explained, in April 2022 CBP stock reached 1.2 million tons.

According to Bulog, this stock is estimated to be sufficient until the end of the year because the distribution of rice is mostly for KPSH only around 500 to 1,000 tons per day or 20-30 thousand tons per month.

With a stock of 1.2 million tons until July, it is estimated that August-December will only need around 150 thousand tons to exit.

"This means that our final stock is still above 1 million tons, because at the next gadu harvest in August, we can still absorb it," explained Epi.

However, he continued, during August 2022, rice prices soared in the market and public demand also increased due to fuel price policies.

The increase in rice prices prompted the increase in CBP demand for KPSH to reach 214 thousand tons in August which resulted in stocks starting to erode until December.

Meanwhile, Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) researcher Ahmad Heri Firdaus said the decline in rice stock and production could raise concerns about rice supply.

In particular, ahead of Christmas and New Year, which usually increases consumption, especially since purchasing power continues to improve after the pandemic.

According to him, during the second semester of 2022, there was indeed an increase in rice prices, which had a fairly high trend, especially after the increase in fuel prices in September 2022. Meanwhile, on the other hand, rice production decreased because it was entering the planting season.

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