Bulog's Task From Badanas: Fill In Corn Reserve Stock According To Assignment

Corn illustration (photo: dock. intermediate)

Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi assigned food SOEs, in this case Bulog, to meet Government Corn Reserves (CJP).

This assignment is in accordance with Presidential Decree 125 of 2022 concerning Management of Government Food Reserves. Where NFA wants to encourage the strengthening of the CJP.

Furthermore, Arief said that the management of the fulfillment of the CJP is needed to build strong upstream and downstream connectivity.

"The government through NFA has assigned Perum Bulog to hold 250,000 tons of corn throughout 2023 with a stock of at least 60,000 tons at the end of the year as stated in the Decree of the Head of the National Food Agency No. 03/HK.02.05/K/1/2023. Bulog will be able to carry out the stabilization function according to the assignment when it has stock in the form of corn reserves," said Arief in a written statement, Tuesday, August 22.

With the facilities and infrastructure owned by Bulog, said Arief, the management of the CJP is expected to run well. Given, Bulog has infrastructure in the form of corn drying facilities or Corn Drying Center (CDC) as many as three units located at corn centers in West Nusa Tenggara and East Java with a Silo capacity of up to 9,000 tons each.

Based on the Corn Commodity Balance Prognosis, the estimated domestic corn production in 2023 will reach 18.15 million tons, with a carry over stock from 2022 of 3.08 million tons, while corn demand throughout 2023 is estimated at 16.98 million tons, so the estimated corn balance has a surplus of around 5.08 million tons.

The corn stock currently managed by Bulog is 203 tons or about 0.08 percent of the national corn stock target according to the NFA assignment of 250,000 tons throughout 2023.

"The main priority is that we encourage domestic corn production to be absorbed by Bulog. The CDC owned by Bulog must be maximized to store this corn reserves, so that when needed, the government can intervene to stabilize supply and price of corn," he said.

Arief assessed that this would certainly be closely related to the stability of the price of chicken eggs and chicken meat where the cost structure of production, one of which came from the cost of feed from corn.

The Government Corn Reserve (CJP) will be used for the corn SPHP program, especially for micro and small layer breeders. Based on data from the Directorate General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, there are 3,951 breeders spread across seven provinces and 40 central districts with a population of 17.5 million heads and an estimated total corn allocation needed of 63,327 tons.

This effort is made to stabilize corn prices to a reasonable level, so that animal feed prices will be corrected towards new balances and have a positive impact on stabilizing the price of chickens and eggs at the consumer level of corn prices.

Arief said that various steps have been taken to stabilize supply and price of corn, starting from the issuance of regulations regarding reference prices, to intensify the facilitation of corn distribution from surplus areas to deficit areas.

Throughout 2023, NFA has facilitated corn distribution to reach 1,222,890 kg from West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi to farmer centers in Blitar, Kendal, Soloraya, Central Kalimantan, and Lampung.

Arief explained that all these steps were taken to maintain price balance in the three lines according to the direction of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

The condition of world food prices has indeed increased because production factors have also increased. So that we make joint efforts to maintain reasonable prices at the level of producers of farmers or breeders, traders, and also consumers or the community. This is what we continue to work on," he said.