National Food Agency Invites Stakeholders To Apply Reference Prices To Protect Farmers

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - Head of the National Food Agency (NFA) Arief Prasetyo Adi invites stakeholders, both state-owned and private, to apply the latest consumer sugar purchase and sales reference prices (HAP) as an effort to protect farmers.

"We hope that the sugar HAP, especially at the producer level of Rp. 12,500 per kg, can be realized immediately by all parties so that sugarcane farmers are motivated to continue farming and remind their productivity, and maintain a balance of sugar prices from upstream to downstream," he said in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, August 22.

Arief emphasized that the adjustment of the consumption of sugar HAP was based on existing economic conditions and provided input from various regulatory stakeholders.

He said the price of Rp. 12,500 per kilogram did not just come because downstream had been adjusted to prices at the consumer level.

"President Joko Widodo always asks that food prices at the producer level are always good, then prices at traders are reasonable to the consumer level. Of course, if our farmers receive good prices, they can also increase the farmer's exchange rate index," he said.

Based on data from food price panels managed by NFA, as of August 20, 2023, the national average consumption of sugar prices at the consumer level touched IDR 14,803 per kg and the average in Java Island was IDR 13,954 per kg.

Meanwhile, price adjustments in Per Agency 17 of 2023 have set the latest consumption of sugar HAP at IDR 12,500 per kg at the producer and HAP level at the consumer level of IDR 14,500 per kg and IDR 15,500 per kg specifically for eastern Indonesia and underdeveloped, outermost, remote, and border (3TP) areas.

"Of course, we really hope that both SOEs and the private sector will not buy sugar from farmers under the HAP. Our commitment today will also be supported by the National Police's Food Task Force," he said.

On this occasion, the struggler consisting of SOEs and the private sector stated his commitment to support the implementation of the sugar consumption HAP at IDR 12,500 per kg at the producer level.

ID FOOD President Director Frans Marganda Tambunan revealed that this HAP can maintain the attractiveness of national sugar cane farming.

"The existence of sugar consumption HAP at the producer level like this can still make sugarcane farmers interested in planting sugar cane. ID FOOD is ready and 100 percent committed to implementing the HAP," he said.