Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has reported that existing warehouses, which are managed by Perum Bulog and the government, are insufficient to store surplus corn and rice, Prabowo informed.
"Minister Sulaiman said that we do not have enough warehouses. Therefore, we will build 25 thousand improvised warehouses made from materials that can last for five to 10 years," he announced in Bogor, West Java, on Friday.
He informed that the emergency warehouses will be set up as a temporary measure until the warehouses built by Red and White Village Cooperatives (KopDes Merah Putih) are completed.
Prabowo is targeting to wrap up the construction of KopDes Merah Putih, which will have warehouses and cold storage, in 80 thousand villages in the next three to four months.
"There will be no more harvests that cannot be stored and maintained. Each village will have a cooler and cold storage for their produce, and it will not be late for delivery to the market," he added.
He said that related authorities are also working on truck procurement for each KopDes Merah Putih to distribute farmers' and fishermen's produce to the market and off-takers such as Perum Bulog.
Earlier, Minister Sulaiman said that state-owned logistics company Perum Bulog has rented an additional warehouse with a capacity of 1.1 million tons to accommodate the surge in national rice production.
He stated that national rice stocks have currently reached 3.4 million tons, the highest level in the last 23 years.
Sulaiman said that as per his projections, the level of rice absorption is also reflecting a positive trend. The total rice absorption in Indonesia reached 1.7 million tons in the period from January to April 2025.
Translator: Mentari Dwi G, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
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