"Meanwhile, rice from Bulog is priced at Rp10,900. We expect the expensive one to be Rp11 thousand, especially since our rice is premium," the director of the state-owned logistics company stated at the Bulog warehouse in Jakarta on Monday.
Despite being optimistic that the price of medium-quality rice in the market will reduce, he could not as yet forecast the exact date of the price reduction after the distribution of food aid, as the distribution process takes time, and traders have already bought rice at high prices.
"Now, we wait for the process. The price cannot fall immediately. (It is) because rice traders already bought their stock at expensive prices. It is impossible for them to sell it at an affordable price," Waseso remarked.
Apart from distributing the second phase of food aid, Waseso noted that his side also attempts to maintain the stability of rice prices and stocks by stocking market operational rice or Food Supply and Price Stabilization (SPHP) to modern retailers and traditional markets.
"In the first phase of CBP's distribution, the rice prices were stable. We were able to maintain inflation and reduce the price. After the aid distribution stopped, the rice price spiked again. Hence, we continue with the second batch and followed by modern retail market operation," he remarked.
The launch of the second phase of food aid distribution by President Joko Widodo is carried out this Monday, with a recipient target of 21,353 million Beneficiary Families (KPM) based on data from the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The assistance will be distributed over a period of three months, namely September, October, and November 2023, and each KPM will receive 10 kilograms of rice that would be distributed thrice. The total food aid distributed reached 640 thousand tons of rice.
Meanwhile, based on data from the Food Price Panel Application of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), the price of medium-quality rice per day is Rp12,760 per kilogram.
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Related news: National rice price expected to decrease by 0.15 percent: Ministry
Translator: Kuntum Khaira R, Resinta S
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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