Imagine. We must be truly grateful that our country is provided with food at a stable price. We have to be gratefulJakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expressed gratitude and appreciation for the stable price of rice in Indonesia amid turmoil in the food supply chain in the world due to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Imagine. We must be truly grateful that our country is provided with food at a stable price. We have to be grateful," Jokowi reminded during his speech at the commemoration of the 29th National Family Day in Medan, North Sumatra, Thursday.
In the midst of turmoil in the world's food supply chain, President Jokowi said that Indonesia still has abundant sources of rice production.
"Praise God, our farmers are still producing rice and, so far, the price has not increased. We hope there would not be a price increase. We have sufficient rice stocks, and we have not imported rice for three years," Jokowi remarked.
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The president later pointed out that Indonesia imported 1.5 million to two million tons of rice. However, for the last three years, Indonesia was able to meet the country's rice needs from domestic farmers.
"Thank you for the hard work of the Agriculture Ministry," Jokowi remarked.
Nevertheless, the president reminded all parties to always stay abreast of the current condition of the food and energy supply chain, especially for wheat supply, since Indonesia still needed to import wheat to meet its domestic needs.
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Nowadays, wheat supply in the world had been disrupted due to the conflict between the world's two wheat producers: Russia and Ukraine.
"Those who like to eat bread, noodle, be careful. The wheat price may increase due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Some 30-40 percent of the wheat production comes from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus," he pointed out.
In fact, Jokowi said that several countries had experienced food shortages and starvation due to hindered food supply caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Imagine how many hundreds of millions of people depend on Ukrainian and Russian wheat? Now, we start to feel the impact since wheat cannot come out of Ukraine and Russia," he added.
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Translator: Indra Arief P, Resinta S
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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