The government is committed to maintaining inflation in the 2–5 percent range so as not to burden the people. This is what President Joko Widodo has mandated to preserve Indonesia's food resilience.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Food Agency (NFA) is striving to maintain Indonesia's food inflation as a concrete step toward realizing national food resiliency.

In a written statement released on Saturday, NFA head Arief Prasetyo Adi informed that domestic inflation has been relatively maintained at 2.6 percent.



The figure is relatively normal when compared to other nations such as the United States (7.9 percent), the European Union (7.5 percent), and Turkey (54.4 percent), where it has continued to rise slowly, he highlighted.



The Russia-Ukraine conflict has affected the global food commodity market, however, Indonesia's inflation is still well-maintained.



"The government is committed to maintaining inflation in the 2–5 percent range so as not to burden the people. This is what President Joko Widodo has mandated to preserve Indonesia's food resilience," he said.



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Food prices have risen globally within the last month. Tackling this increase will require a comprehensive approach from all food stakeholders, Adi noted.



"This condition certainly attracts the government's attention. Subsidy policy toward food producers for several commodities has been carried out such as corn and soybean subsidies," he informed.



The global condition is an opportunity for Indonesia to optimize domestic production, as mandated by President Joko Widodo, to create economic resilience by maintaining food resilience.



In addition, keeping imports as an alternative and complementing food stocks when domestic production is not enough is important.


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The NFA has implemented an early warning system to ensure the availability and stability of food prices of nine food commodities managed by the agency are within the normal limit through food balance prognosis.



For instance, since last month, the availability of red onion had been below normal and its price had risen by 3.39 percent per week, or reached Rp35,395/kg, he highlighted.



However, the agency secured the availability of red onions in coordination with the Trade Ministry.


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As a result, as of April 6, 2022, the supply of red onion has been above normal to the extent that there is a surplus of 151 tons.



Meanwhile, red onion's price has stabilized at Rp24,000/kg, or down 11.11 percent compared to the previous day, Adi explained.

Translator: Aji Cakti, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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