Don't Worry, Badanas Ensures Food Stock Is Safe Until Eid

Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi (Photo: Mery Handayani)

Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi claims that the available food stocks are safe to meet the needs of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr 2023. He also asked the public not to worry.

This is based on data collection and monitoring of Bapanas in the field as well as exposure from Ministries/Institutions and representatives of the Association and Business Actors of each commodity.

"People don't need to worry, we make sure all food stocks are sufficient for Eid. This is done through optimizing domestic stocks, assigning procurement by Food SOEs, as well as facilitation of distribution and optimization of storage facilities or cold chains," he told reporters, Tuesday, March 28.

Furthermore, Arief said that according to the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), Bapanas will ensure that food stocks on National Religious Holidays (HBKN) are available at a good and balanced price at the producer, trader and consumer levels.

Therefore, Arief emphasized the importance of the availability of cold chain facilities to extend the life of food storage. This is a step in the future in order to maintain the availability and stabilization of food prices from upstream to downstream in a sustainable manner.

One of the challenges faced is the management stock, for that in the future one of the things that must be built is the cold chain so that our food security index is even better," he explained.

Meanwhile, the representative of the National Police's Food Task Force Kombes Hermawan said monitoring and early detection of food availability and price increases were very important during fasting and Eid.

According to him, the Food Task Force and the Regional Food Task Force consistently supervise, especially basic foodstuffs, which experience continuous price increases.

"Food Task Force is ready to be actively involved in various price stabilization programs, such as the Cheap Food Movement (GPM) and establish coordination with local governments to mobilize food commodities from surplus areas to deficit areas," he said.