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Bulog’s 2.3 million tons of rice at risk of spoilage
The government expects Bulog to procure 1.8 million tons of rice from farmers in 2019.
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Workers carry sacks of medium quality rice at a warehouse belonging to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) in Purwasari, Karawang, West Java. The agency wants a bigger role in the distribution of rice for the poor. (Antara/M Ibnu Chazar)
S
ome 2.3 million tons of rice stocked at the State Logistics Agency’s (Bulog) warehouses is at risk of spoilage as the agency is facing difficulties in distributing its stocks as a result of its minimal role in the government-implemented non-cash food assistance program (BPNT) for the poor, an official has said.
“As the rice distributed under the BPNT comes from free market, we are facing difficulties in distributing our stocks. Our rice stocks, therefore, are now at risk of spoilage,” president director Budi “Buwas” Waseso said on Tuesday.
He said the distribution difficulties also meant Bulog would struggle to absorb more rice from farmers when the domestic market was oversupplied because 85 percent of its warehouses all around the country were full.
“We have almost no space left in our warehouses, which have a total capacity of only 2.7 million tons. If we buy more rice from farmers, we need to rent warehouses, meaning that we will have an additional burden,” said Buwas.
Recent data from the Agriculture Ministry shows that Bulog absorbed only 20,844 tons of rice from farmers between January and March. The government expects the agency to procure 1.8 million tons of rice from farmers for the whole year of 2019.
Since 2017, the government has been gradually changing the mechanisms of rice distribution for poor people. Under the Rice Assistance Program (Rastra) introduced in 2015, the government assigned Bulog as the sole distributor of 10 kilograms of rice to each of 14 million low-income families.
Meanwhile, under the BPNT scheme, the government distributes Rp 110,000 (US$8) monthly to each of 15.6 million poor families in the form of cash, with which they are allowed to buy eggs and rice at designated kiosks called e-warung.
