"Bulog no longer needs permission to intervene in the market if the price of milled rice shows an upward trend," Hatta Rajasa said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa urged state logistics agency (Bulog) on Wednesday to intervene in the market to ensure an adequate supply of basic necessaries until the end of this year.
"Bulog no longer needs permission to intervene in the market if the price of milled rice shows an upward trend," Hatta said in a press conference here.
He said Bulog now holds 2.96 million tons of milled rice in stocks, the highest in the past five years.
"Therefore, Bulog will soon intervene in the market," he said.
Hatta said he will always monitor the supply of rice which is the staple food of the vast majority of the Indonesian people.
Likewise he also asked the agency to stabilize the price of premium rice in view of an upward trend along with the rise of the middle class people.
"Bulog will continue to increase its rice purchase in the wet dry season. Although the first estimate is 0.3 percent we remain optimistic that the estimate will increase in the years to come," he said.
Therefore, he asked the Agriculture Ministry to continue to increase supplies and Bulog will absorb them.
"As such, at the end of this year we will have a policy to keep rice stocks of 2 million tons at the Bulog warehouses," he said.
The 2.96 million tons of milled rice would be enough to meet the public consumption for 12 months.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
