"Insya Allah (God willing), the stocks are adequate to meet the people's demands, and the second phase of rice aid from the government rice reserve program," said Hafizhsyah, acting head of the office.
The rice stocks will get additional supplies once 7 thousand tons of rice, imported from Vietnam, arrives at Malahayati Port in Aceh Besar district, he informed.
As a result, Bulog will be able to meet local rice demands and support the government's efforts to stabilize rice prices, he added.
Hafizhsyah said the government's phase II food aid program requires rice reserves of around 5,000 tons per month for three months.
On Tuesday, head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Arief Prasetyo Adi, said the government has continued to make efforts to conduct interventions in order to stabilize food prices and ensure inflation remains under control.
He earlier said the rice assistance is targeted at people belonging to the low-income group.
For the community in general, the government is running the Food Supply and Price Stabilization (SPHP) program and the Cheap Food Movement, which are being intensified in all regions.
In response to the El Nino threat, Adi assured that the stocks of strategic food commodities are safe until the end of 2023.
Adi noted that for rice, Bapanas has tasked Bulog with absorbing 2.4 million tons of the commodity, an increase from only 990 thousand tons last year.
"Domestic production becomes a priority, so we have to maintain the prices at the farmers' level to be good, and in the downstream, the inflation must be secured well because it will affect the community's purchasing power," he explained.
In October, November, and December 2023, the government will provide rice assistance to 21.3 million beneficiary families, each of them will receive 10 kilograms of rice per month.
Adi explained that the provision of the rice assistance is a continuation of the earlier food assistance program to the beneficiary families, under which a total of 640 thousand tons of rice was distributed.
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Translator: M.Ifdhal, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Anton Santoso
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