Bad, RI is Facing a New Crisis, It Will Be Tough!

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Indonesia is facing a major crisis, namely the lack of rice stocks which causes prices to soar. Traders and the public screamed. The government must immediately find a solution so that this problem does not recur.

The stock of rice owned by the government or commonly called the Government Rice Reserve (CBP) is very small. The CDP held by Perum Bulog at the end of 2022 was only 399,160 tons.

Now, the number has increased to 680,000 tonnes. The increase in the number of rice stocks was supported by the influx of imported rice from Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand of around 200,000 tons, the rest was from domestic absorption of rice.

For the record, Bulog received a rice import quota of 500,000 tons. This means that there are still 300,000 tons that have not yet been imported. The ultimatum from the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) stated that the imported rice from Vietnam and Thailand must arrive by February 16, 2023 at the latest.

If you look at the CDP stock owned by Bulog, it’s very sad. According to the National Food Agency (Bapanas), ideally the CBP that Bulog should have reaches 1.2-1.5 million tonnes.

This stock must be fulfilled considering that most of the Bulog rice distribution is for Stabilization of Food Supply and Prices (SPHP) or market operations. In 2022, the amount of rice disbursed by Bulog for this program was 1.2 million tons.

In fact, the CBP owned by Bulog is below 1 million tons. The lack of CBP stocks coupled with the low ability to absorb local rice by Bulog due to the drag on domestic production has caused prices to fluctuate.

As an illustration, in August 2022, the price of medium type rice was around IDR 8,200-8,300 per kg. Now moving up to IDR 9,500-9,700 per kg. There are even some traders who sell it for up to IDR 10,500 per kg. Medium rice is the most consumed by Indonesian people.

The price is quite high. Up to the retail level, the price of this medium rice can be up to IDR 11,000 to IDR 11,500 per kg. Whereas the Highest Retail Price (HET) for medium rice is IDR 9,450 per kg.

This condition was acknowledged by the Main Director of Perum Bulog Budi Waseso. Buwas revealed that Bulog received import quotas to suppress the high price of rice in the market.

“Bulog also doesn’t want imports, because that’s a state order. Why was the decision made? because the rice situation is not normal,” said Buwas at the Bulog Headquarters, Jakarta, Friday (20/1/2023).

Apart from reducing the high price, rice imports are also to fill the vacancy in CDB stocks. All of Bulog’s rice import procurement contracts are complete, just waiting for the arrival of the rest.

“Why did the country end up importing? Because the supply was lacking. The supply was lacking because of something, so Bulog imported rice. In the assignment, it imported 500,000 tons and all the contracts have been completed. Now it has arrived in several areas,” he said.

Buwas said, rice imports were chosen because local production was slow. January to February is not the time for the main harvest. Already so, the purchase price of dry harvested unhusked rice (GKP) and milled dry unhusked rice (GKG) is usually also high.

“January to February there has been no harvest, there are a few but not significant,” he said.

So, when will this rice crisis end?

Buwas first targeted Bulog’s rice stock to increase by at least 1 million tons. His target is up to 2.4 million tons.

“Our target is the assignment of 2.4 million. This means that currently there are a lot of 600,000-700,000 tons, of which 500,000 tons come from imports. In March, at least we can absorb at least 1 million,” he concluded.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]