Beddu says Bulog holds enough commodity stocks

Beddu says Bulog holds enough commodity stocks

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the National Logistics Agency (Bulog), Beddu Amang, gave assurances yesterday that his agency holds sufficient stocks of commodities to see the country through the coming festive season.

Beddu told journalists at his office that people should be able to enjoy the festivities without food price increases, which usually occurs as festive season approaches.

The upcoming major festivities in Indonesia include this month's Christmas and year-end fiestas, as well as Chinese new year and the Islamic fasting month and Idul Fitri holiday, which will fall early next year.

"Everything is secured: rice, flour, sugar. Their prices are currently stable. If they begin to fluctuate heavily, we will immediately intervene in the market. If necessary, we will import such commodities," Beddu said after inducting 49 officials at his office, five of whom are of the first echelon.

The newly-inducted officials are not new to Bulog. Under Presidential Decision No. 51/1995, dated July 15, 1995, all Bulog employees automatically became civil servants, paid by the government. Yesterday's ceremony was held to mark the change in the officials' status.

Beddu reported that his agency has earmarked 90,000 tons of crude palm oil (CPO), the main raw material for cooking oil, for the coming festivities. The amount is much lower than last year's figure of 150,000 tons.

"This is the first phase only. This amount of CPO is used as buffer stocks to maintain CPO prices at the current level of Rp 1,400 (61 U.S. cents) a kilo," Beddu said. "And we have been able to keep the current level of CPO prices for more than one month."

Last June, Bulog required CPO producers to contribute part of their production to the buffer stock at a government-set price in order to support its market operations to bring down cooking oil prices to Rp 1,400 per kilogram from nearly Rp 2,000 by this month.

Rice

Beddu also reported that Bulog's rice stocks, the country's main diet, is currently 1.47 million tons, the highest level since he assumed Bulog's chairmanship early this year.

"This amount is enough for the consumption of civil servants and members of the Armed Forces for nine to 10 months," Beddu noted.

The large rice stock, he said, was generated from both the agency's domestic procurement and by this year's imports and the carry-over of last year's imports.

Although most Indonesian farmers are currently entering the rice-planting season, Bulog can still collect some 35,000 tons of rice per month from farmers, mainly in Central, South and Southeast Sulawesi, for its buffer stocks.

Bulog targets to import up to one million tons of rice during the current fiscal year, which ends next March. Last fiscal year, Bulog signed import contracts for 1.8 million tons of rice, some of which will be shipped during the current fiscal year, Beddu said.

He acknowledged that imported rice, especially from Myanmar and India, is often of poor quality. He gave assurances that Bulog will reprocess low-quality rice using blowing techniques and by mixing the poor-quality grain with better-quality rice.

He promised that Bulog would continue importing rice to further increase its buffer stocks and to dampen the increases in rice prices, which normally take place between the beginning of rice planting season in October until the start of the harvest season in April.

"However, rice prices declined slightly last month. This is surprising because rice prices usually rise during a time of scarcity," Beddu said.

Beddu predicted last September that rice prices were likely to climb by between 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent each month from then until February in response to the end of the harvest months and the beginning of the planting season. (rid)