TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Analysis: Rice stocks deplete, govt ministries split over plan to import rice
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Workers transport rice at Cipinang Rice Main Market, Jakarta, Monday (15/3/2021). Main Director of Perum Bulog Budi Waseso said that the government rice reserve stock (CBP) will reach above 1 million tonnes by the end of April 2021, an increase from the position per March 14, 2021 of 859,877 tonnes due to entering the main harvest season in March-April 2021. (JP/Yulianto Catur Nugroho)
R
ice prices have been increasing lately as traders and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) reported depleting rice stocks. The Trade Ministry approved the importation of 500,000 tonnes of rice to replenish Bulog’s stocks, however the Agriculture Ministry disagreed and argued there were enough rice stocks in the country, but that these were in the hands of farmers and traders.
Medium-grade rice prices increased to Rp 9,200 (59 US cents) per kilogram in Jakarta’s Cipinang Rice Central Market at the end of November, up from a range of Rp 8,300 to Rp 8,500 in August. According to the National Food Agency (NFA), rising rice prices over the past three months contributed 3 to 4 percent to national inflation.
Traders in the Cipinang market reported that rice stocks were depleting fast and the market could be empty by December if supplies of rice to the market remained low. Cipinang Rice Market Traders Cooperative chairman Zulkifli Rasyid revealed that the cooperative recently requested 500,000 tonnes of rice to Bulog, but the agency only supplied 150,000 tonnes. The market sells around 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes of rice per day.
Bulog chairman Budi Waseso told a recent hearing with House of Representatives’ Commission IV on agriculture that the agency’s stocks had been depleted to only 651,000 tonnes, far below the required 1.2 million tonnes, as a result of market operations to bring down prices. Bulog then requested the government’s permission to import rice to replenish its stock. Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan approved Bulog’s request, and said that the government had a standby order to import 500,000 tonnes of rice.
At the same hearing, officials from the Agriculture Ministry disagreed, saying that there were enough rice stocks in the country, but in the hands of farmers, rice milling plants and traders. The ministry said Bulog needed to buy the rice from them at market prices to replenish its stocks, and not resort to imports.
As no agreement was reached at the hearing, House Commission IV’s Sudin told Bulog to source rice from the domestic market and asked the Agriculture Ministry to help Bulog locate where the stocks were located. Sudin gave Bulog one week to replenish its stock from the domestic market.
Following the hearing, the Agriculture Ministry’s Food Plantation Director General Suwanto sent a letter to Bulog, the House Commission IV, the NFA and other related institutions, detailing the locations of rice stocks across the country where Bulog could buy up to 600,000 tonnes of rice. But after one week, Bulog managed to purchase 30,000 tonnes of rice from the domestic market.
