"Today, the President gathered us in a limited meeting, consisting of the coordinating minister, ministers, even police chief, and relevant parties, including the State Logistics Agency (Bulog)," Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said at the Presidential Palace here on Friday.
According to him, the president has monitored several commodities, such as rice, soybeans, shallots, garlic, large chilies, bird's eye chilies, beef, chicken meat, eggs, and sugar, especially their availability, for Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan and Eid al-Fitr festival.
Limpo said that President Widodo instructed all ministers to jointly check the buffer stocks of those foods in the field.
"Our balance sheet, Alhamdulillah (thank God), until March, is relatively available, and it means that we need to fix the logistics distribution, improve it, and cooperate with regional governments, governors, and district heads," he added.
At the meeting, President Widodo paid special attention to the availability of rice in the January–March period.
"Because this is related to the Agriculture Ministry; there will be (rice) harvest of 1 million hectares in February and March. Thus, the peak of the harvest will occur around this month," he added.
Apart from that, cooperation with private parties is also needed to maintain food distribution.
"Cooking oil is reported to be the same: our balance sheet is sufficiently available. Hopefully, during Ramadhan and Eid al-Fitr, all will run as expected," he added.
Then, regarding imported foods, such as meat, the president asked his ministers to ensure their availability.
Meanwhile, head of the National Food Agency (BPN), Arief Prasetyo Adi, said that the president specifically called for ensuring the availability of rice.
"He is, indeed, a bit strict about ensuring the stocks are available. First is rice; for the next month, we are in harvest (season), so Bulog was ordered to get ready to start raising the price of unhulled rice so that Bulog can absorb it," Adi said.
The meeting on Friday was chaired directly by President Widodo and attended by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, and Adi.
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Translator: Desca Lidya, Raka Adji
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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