The government officially launched Wednesday its first batch of 300,000 tons of cheap rice to provinces throughout the archipelago as part of its effort to curb the soaring price of rice.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo himself led the launch of the fresh rice stocks priced between Rp 1,600 (12 US cents) and Rp 7,400 per kilogram at the State Logistics Agency'€™s (Bulog) rice warehouse in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Jokowi said that the recent surge in rice prices had gone haywire.

This year, the price of rice already soared by around 30 percent, with current prices ranging between Rp 9,000 and Rp 12,000 per kilogram, subject to the rice'€™s type and area in which it is distributed.

'€œWe will boost the rice supply so that there will be no more supply shortage. We will provide the supply no matter what,'€ the President asserted.

Rice is one among main triggers of inflation and price fluctuations given its role as the staple food of the 250 million people in Indonesia. The government, through Bulog, which is tasked with distributing rice and other food commodities throughout Indonesia to manage prices, has always tried to maintain the balance in the supply in order to keep the prices stable.

During the so-called raskin (cheap rice for the poor) operation, the President also held a teleconference with Bulog executives in South Sumatra, West Java, East Java and Bali, who were all confident that there would be no hurdles in the distribution of the rice supply and assured people that they would soon see a decline in the price of rice.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla had earlier blamed the rice price increase on bottlenecks in the distribution of the cheap rice at regional levels, which he claimed were facing some '€œtechnical problems'€.

The raskin program had only distributed 140,000 tons of its initial target of 500,000 tons, thus causing a shortage in some areas, driving up rice prices.

Meanwhile, Bulog'€™s president director Lenny Sugihat said she would intensify coordination with local administrations to ensure that the new rice stock could be distributed successfully.

Lenny also argued that her agency might not import rice from other countries if the domestic supply was already sufficient.

Last year, the agency imported at least 425,000 tons of rice from Thailand and Vietnam to beef up its supply.

'€œWe are not talking about imports here; if the domestic rice supply is already adequate, then why should we import?'€ she said to reporters on Wednesday.

University of Lampung agricultural economist Bustanul Arifin noted that the irregular increase of the rice price was driven by the late harvest season, which would only fall between March and June this year.

The change of the market operation system carried out by Bulog, which now distributes rice through the mediation of third-party traders, also drove up rice prices.

'€œThe change of the system triggered [the price increase] as it affected stocks. I said that rice from Bulog should be channeled to markets and traders with stricter requirements,'€ Bustanul explained.

Bustanul also called on the government to seriously investigate the alleged role of the '€œrice mafia'€ in the rice trade that had undermined the competitiveness of domestic business players benefiting from the high prices of rice, while suggesting severe punishment against them.

'€œIf the trade minister has already found the indications, then he should not be worried about enforcing the law against the '€˜players'€™,'€ he said recently.

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