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ust three months before the legislative and presidential elections, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is running for a second term, has stated that the prices of staple commodities will remain stable as he insisted that State Logistics Agency (Bulog) had a sufficient supply of rice.

He said on Thursday that Bulog’s rice stock in its warehouses, amounting to 2.1 million tons last December, was in a much better position compared with the 700,000-800,000 tons in previous years.

“This year’s rice stock is a multiple of those in previous years,” said Jokowi after visiting one of Bulog’s storage facilities in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Jokowi said adequate rice stocks would reassure the public that Bulog would be ready to intervene in the market during periods of price volatility, pointing to the fact that speculative trading usually occurred whenever there were rumors of inadequate supplies.

Bulog chief Budi Waseso said that around 1.7 million tons of the total 2.1 million tons of rice currently stored in the agency’s warehouses were imported during 2018. The remainder was purchased by Bulog from local rice farmers.

Jokowi said he had instructed Bulog to reduce the price of rice through market operations, which would free up space in Bulog’s storage and allow the agency to replenish its stocks by buying from local rice farmers during the harvest period.

Medium-grade rice was selling at between Rp 11,700 (83 US cents) and Rp 11,900 per kilogram on Thursday, according to official price monitoring website hargapangan.id. This range was higher than the minimum retail price set by Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 57/2017 for medium-grade rice of between Rp 9,540 and Rp 10,250 per kg.

Economists have forecast that the government should easily maintain low inflation this year despite a possible oil price hike and food price volatility, following the 3.13 percent annual inflation recorded in 2018, which was within the target range set in the state budget.

Rice contributed 0.13 percent to inflation in 2018, the second highest contributor after gasoline, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show.

Rusli Abdullah, a researcher at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, said it was important for Jokowi to maintain price stability, particularly of rice, which is an important part of Indonesians’ dietary needs.

“From a political-economic standpoint, the government has an interest in keeping prices stable, given that rice is a staple commodity and accounting for one of the highest proportions of [consumer] spending,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Jokowi said the government was open to the possibility of importing more rice should there arise a mismatch between supply and demand, stressing Bulog’s “vital” role in managing prices.

Budi of Bulog last year questioned the government’s rice import decision as he was adamant that imports were not needed to meet domestic demand. In September, he said the agency had to rent additional warehouses to store the imported rice as it juggled to absorb domestic rice production during the harvest period and imports.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution responded by saying that any decision on imports in the near future would have to wait until March, because the government would have to assess stock levels after the harvest.

Last year’s debates on whether excessive rice imports were needed also shed light on the need for credible production data. Jokowi then assigned BPS to act as the ultimate data provider for the policy-making process, including in relation to rice imports.

Nonetheless, Budi said there was no pressing need to import rice at least until June, as Bulog aimed to take up 1.8 million tons of rice from local farmers during the harvest period.

Bulog also aims to supply up to 15,000 tons of rice through its daily market operation to bring down prices, although currently only around 5,000 tons were being absorbed by the market on average, he said.

Budi said he had coordinated with BPS to identify important rice producers in the regions and inform them that harvesting could start as soon as February.

“The regions mapped by BPS will be my target for purchasing [rice from farmers]. We can strengthen our stocks if our purchasing is maximized,” said Budi.