Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) and\nAgriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has emphasised that the\ngovernment is continuously safeguarding food prices and inflation to\nmitigate potential crises arising from global dynamics and climate\nchange.<\/p>\n
Amran stated that several government interventions to maintain food\nprices include field monitoring to ensure compliance with the highest\nretail price (HET) and reference selling price (HAP), as well as\ndistributing food assistance to 33.2 million beneficiary families\n(KPM).<\/p>\n
Additionally, the government is distributing rice and corn through\nthe government-subsidised Stabilisation of Food Supply and Price (SPHP)\nprogramme, the cheap food movement (GPM), and facilitating the\ndistribution of food from surplus areas (excess supply) to deficit areas\n(short supply).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way (to maintain food price stability) is through food\nassistance and SPHP,\u201d said Amran when met after the Working Meeting of\nCommission IV of the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The government is keeping fluctuations in staple food prices within\nreasonable bounds from producer to consumer levels.<\/p>\n
The government ensures that the inflation rate of volatile price\ncomponents, or food inflation, remains stable, indicating that public\npurchasing power is also positively maintained.<\/p>\n
Amran explained the need to refer to strong reference data. According\nto him, data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) can serve as a\nbenchmark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen talking about prices, we use data. Don\u2019t use feelings, because\nmany price increases occur only at one point (but) that is taken as a\nnational reference. According to BPS, we follow BPS. If we talk village\nby village, it\u2019s difficult. BPS shows that food inflation has dropped\nfrom 2.50 percent to 1.58 percent this month,\u201d clarified Amran.<\/p>\n
In the last three years, Amran continued, the post-Eid al-Fitr period\nhas usually been followed by food deflation. In 2024, monthly food\ninflation in March was recorded at 2.16 percent, but it turned into\ndeflation of 0.31 percent in April. In 2025, food inflation of 1.96\npercent in March changed to a slight deflation of 0.04 percent in the\nfollowing month.<\/p>\n
However, in 2026, the food inflation trend was successfully kept as a\npositive movement. Food inflation remained stable at a positive and\nreasonable level of 1.58 percent after the previous month\u2019s 2.50\npercent. This reflects more controlled supply and price stability, with\npublic purchasing power still maintained.<\/p>\n
Looking at this food inflation trend, the government is optimistic\nabout mitigating crises that may occur as implications of geopolitical\nconflicts and the El Ni\u00f1o phenomenon. Rice, as the primary consumption\nchoice for the public, is ensured to be sufficiently available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point is, the crises we faced in the past and those to come, we\nwill handle. Today, our rice reserve stock reaches 4.6 million tonnes,\nthe highest in our stock history. That\u2019s the food sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last two years under President Prabowo Subianto\u2019s\nadministration, rice has not been the main contributor to inflation up\nto now. What does that mean? Our rice is sufficient,\u201d added Amran.<\/p>\n
Bapanas records that rice has a monthly inflation rate that is quite\ncontrolled. Since June 2024, the monthly rice inflation level has never\nexceeded the 2 percent index.<\/p>\n
The latest monthly rice inflation in March 2026 is at 0.65 percent,\nslightly increasing from February 2026\u2019s 0.43 percent.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the latest annual rice inflation in March 2026 is at 3.71\npercent. This is still much lower compared to the very high annual rice\ninflation in March 2024 at 20.07 percent and also lower than the highest\npoint of rice inflation in 2025 at 4.24 percent in August.<\/p>\n
One of the efforts to maintain national rice price volatility, the\ngovernment is pursuing various programmes, both directly targeting the\npublic and post-harvest infrastructure development. This is a direct\ninstruction from President Prabowo Subianto.<\/p>\n
In addition to food assistance interventions and the SPHP rice and\ncorn programme, the government is also preparing to build warehouses in\nareas without rice production, such as East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West\nNusa Tenggara (NTB).<\/p>\n
\u201cIncluding Ambon, where rice is sometimes scarce, we will build\n(storage warehouses). The budget is Rp 5 trillion and the President has\napproved,\u201d explained Amran.<\/p>\n
According to Bapanas records, the realisation of rice food assistance\ndistribution, packaged with cooking oil, as of 7 April has reached 36.4\nmillion kilograms (kg) of rice and 125.7 liters of cooking oil.\nMeanwhile, the realisation of SPHP rice sales from March to 7 April has\nreached 82.2 thousand tonnes.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/government-ensures-control-of-food-prices-and-inflation-to-mitigate-crises-1775591491", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }