Bontang, East Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - PT Pupuk Indonesia (fertlizer company) has guaranteed that fertilizer stocks are safe ahead of the planting season that falls during the period from October 2018 to March 2019.

President Director of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero) Aas Asikin Idat stated here on Tuesday that the total fertilizer stocks up to September 12, 2018, nationally in Line III & IV, or in the district warehouses and kiosks reached 1,475,323 tons.

According to Idat, the figure reached twice that of the provisions of the stock set by the government, and the quantity was also not included in the stock in the factory and provincial warehouses.

The details for the national stock Line III & IV comprised 519,804 tons of urea, 466,608 tons of NPK, 136,580 tons of Organic, 182,264 tons of SP-36, and 170,067 tons of ZA, while the realization of distribution until September 7, 2018, was 2,623,482 tons urea, 1,696,364 tons NPK, 466,529 tons Organic, 592,773 tons SP-36, and 659,369 tons ZA.

"In preparation for this planting season, we are assigning fertilizer producers, who are members of the Indonesian Fertilizer Group, to accelerate the process of fertilizer distribution, especially from lines II and III to line IV, i.e., distribution by fertilizer distributors to kiosks," Idat noted.

Thus, Idat added that distributors and kiosk owners can redeem the fertilizers in accordance with the allocation, so that they can be received by farmers on time.

In addition, he noted that as a precautionary measure to cater to the needs of farmers, who are not listed in the RDKK and do not receive subsidized fertilizer allocation, Pupuk Indonesia requires that each distributor provide non-subsidized fertilizers at each kiosk.

"We have implemented preventive measures in areas that can likely face obstacles in the distribution process through encouraging reallocation of fertilizers that are expected to be completed before the planting season arrives," he noted.

"Moreover, we also encourage distributors to immediately take the fertilizer kept in the warehouse, so that the manufacturer`s warehouse can be utilized for other fertilizer requirements in the event of a surge in demand," he explained.

Until now, Pupuk Indonesia has distributed subsidized fertilizer to 5,696 sub-districts across Indonesia, with support of 6,288 truck fleets, 22 fleet ships, 14 wharves, 194 routes of Voyage Charter Liner, 659 warehouses of the province and regency, with a total capacity of 3,105,027 tons, and 1,542 distributors, as well as over 40 thousand kiosks across the archipelago.

PT Pupuk Indonesia, PT Perkebunan Nusantara III, and PT BNI had earlier worked together for fertilizer procurement that was considered to reduce the imports of fertilizer commodities in future.

"I am pleased that today I can sign a memorandum of understanding and hopefully become the PKS (Cooperation Agreement) as soon as possible," BUMN (state-owned companies) Minister Rini Soemarno noted at the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation for fertilizer procurement for meeting the needs of PT Perkebunan Nusantara III (plantation company) and its subsidiaries in the Ministry of BUMN, Jakarta, Thursday (Apr 26).

Soemarno admitted that during this time, it was strange, that while PT Pupuk Indonesia had five factories in the country it only supplied some 10-15 percent of the needs of the plantation BUMNs.

The state-owned enterprises minister revealed that while conducting an assessment of plantation SOEs, it was found that various factors, such as delay in delivery, did have an impact.

To this end, he remarked that through better synergy, it is expected that PT Pupuk Indonesia`s profits would increase, and the production costs of plantation BUMNs would reduce due to increased efficiency.

Reporting by Muhammad Razi Rahman
Editing by Eliswan

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Otniel Tamindael
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