"I hope it could be done immediately, decision could be immediately made on which commodities that must be supervised, rice, soybean, corn or others that people really need," Yudhoyono said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked for the revitalization of the national logistics agency (Bulog) as a stabilizer of prices of not only rice but other food commodities needed by the people as well.
In a cabinet meeting here on Thursday the President said the revitalization was needed due to stability challenges caused by continuously increasing prices of various food commodities and food demand from the public.
"I think and I have received support that Bulog must be revitalized to be a price stabilizer in line with the history of its establishment," he said.
In connection with that he called for an immediate establishment of a team to revive Bulog`s role and study food commodities that would be put under the responsibility of the agency.
"I hope it could be done immediately, decision could be immediately made on which commodities that must be supervised, rice, soybean, corn or others that people really need," he said.
President Yudhoyono reminded that world food supplies are currently vulnerable due to climate change while referring to the increasing price of soybean due to drought in the US and other countries.
The price of soybean now reaches Rp7,000 to Rp8,000 per kilogram rising from formerly only Rp5,000 to Rp6,000 causing a strike by soybean cake (tempe) and tofu producers in the country in the past few days.
In Indonesia the price of soybean is vulnerable to supplies from abroad as domestic production could only meet 800,000 to 850,000 kilograms out of the demand of 2.2 million tons. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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