Rice Stock in Bulog Reaches 923,000 Tons, Buwas Believes RI Doesn’t Need Imports. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) predicts rice production in January-April 2022 to reach 14.54 million tons with a demand of 9.7 million tons.
From this figure, it is predicted that there will be a rice stock surplus of 4.8 million tons from January to April 2022.
Regarding the calculation, Bulog President Budi Waseso (Buwas) views domestic production as sufficient to meet the needs of the people.
“I want to show ourselves that domestic production is sufficient. I firmly based on something that has been said by the Ministry of Agriculture and BPS. If not sure, who do I trust?” / 3/2022).
Bulog’s rice stock reaches 923,000 tons, Buwas believes that Indonesia doesn’t need to import it. In addition, the government’s rice reserve (CBP) in the Bulog camp is 923,000 tons.
“Today, our CBP rice is 902,000 tons, except for the other day where it was absorbed by 800,000 tons. Currently increasing. If Bulog is completely controlled today, it will be 923,000 tons,” he explained.
According to him, the idea of importing 1 million tons of rice does not meet domestic requirements, which will enter the harvest period.
“We have to keep announcing imports, especially the basic rice, namely rice. Besides, it’s harvest time. I’m not talking about imports because I’m not a regulator, not a decision maker,” he said.
Rice settles. Imported rice itself was carried out in 2022 around 1.8 million tons. However, the stock of imported rice has not run out and the quality has decreased. In fact, there are still 200,000 tons of imported rice in 2022, 106,000 tons of which are in danger of being destroyed or rotten.
“The remaining imported rice is around 200,000 tons. 106,000 tons of imported rice have the potential to be destroyed. It’s safe in the country,” said Buwas.
He told me how difficult it was in the end to import 1.8 million tons of rice that it risked rotting.
Buwas explained that rice imports at that time were only 600,000 tons because there were government rice reserves (CBP) in Bulogs, while Bulog worked to provide social assistance (social assistance) for rich rice (rastra) of up to 2.6 million tons / year to be continued.
Unfortunately, in 2022 the government withheld the Rastra social assistance program as a Non-Cash Food Contribution (BPNT). In the BPNT program, Bulog is no longer a special supplier. As a result, imported rice is difficult to allocate and support in Bulog warehouses.
If the quality of imported rice is still good, according to Buwas, distribution is difficult. The problem is that the type of rice that is imported does not match the type of rice commonly eaten by most Indonesians.
“With 1.8 million tons remaining, the Bulog rice has import problems. Why have problems? The rice is quite delicious. The problem is that most of the imported rice is Pera. Pera is not eaten by most Indonesians,” he said. he.
Therefore, imported rice must also be allocated by adding it with domestically produced rice.
“Bulog, if it is continued in any activities, of course it will be combined with local rice. The minimum ratio is 1: 1 so that it can be accepted by our citizens,” he said.
