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Govt to secure staple food stocks as dry season approaches
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A beef vendor serves a customer in a traditional market. The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has said its food stocks are sufficient to meet an expected rise in demand during Ramadhan. (Tempo/Tony Hartawan)
F
acing the possibility of a prolonged dry season, the government has pledged to maintain the supply of staple foods and the stability of food prices.
On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo stated that the national stock of 11 key food products, including rice, would be sufficient to meet the nationwide demand until June.
The rice stock is expected to stand at 14 million tons between April and June, exceeding the estimated consumption of 7.6 million tons within those three months.
However, the ministry acknowledged six provinces experienced rice supply shortages last month, including Riau, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung Islands and North Maluku, whose stocks were over 25 percent less than demand.
“If there is a province facing shortages, we have to be careful and pay utmost attention, reminding ourselves about the distribution amid the COVID-19 outbreak,” Syahrul, a Nasdem Party politician, said in an online briefing on Tuesday.
The Agriculture Ministry and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), the government body tasked with securing national staple food stocks, has since addressed the shortages by distributing products from provinces with excess supplies to those facing shortages.
However, on top of the looming risk of drought, the country’s food supply chain currently faces logistical disruption caused by the social restrictions to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
Some 30 percent of the country’s regions face a worse-than-usual dry season this year, said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday, referring to data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
The President, therefore, instructed the government to store rainwater and start filling reservoirs, retention ponds and other artificial water-storage places.
“Water supply in centers of agricultural production is key,” Jokowi said in an online briefing on Tuesday. “We have to make use of the remaining rain right now, ensure farmers continue harvesting while complying with the health protocols.”
To ensure enough stocks of garlic, beef and sugar until June, the Food Security Agency reported that it would expedite imports.
The Coordinating Economic Minister, Airlangga Hartarto, reported on Tuesday that firms had procured 94,000 tons of garlic from China in April and estimated they would import 78,000 tons more this month.
As a result, the average price of garlic declined by 5 percent to Rp 42,650 (US$2.62) per kilogram last month compared with the price in March.
In late April, the President also stated that 30 provinces faced shortages of sugar and 31 provinces faced shortages of garlic, which resulted in soaring prices.
The average price of sugar rose by 9.6 percent to Rp 18,250 per kg between March and April, way above the government’s price ceiling of Rp 12,500 per kg, data from the Information Center for Strategic Food Prices (PIHPS) show.
In response to the anticipated dry season, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Indonesia office (FAO Indonesia) has discouraged people from stockpiling food at home and buying too much fresh food at one time as products may spoil.
