Chased by El Niño, Bulog Boss Accelerates Rice Absorption from Farmers until July
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Perum Bulog’s President Director, Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, has instructed all regional staff to accelerate the absorption of unmilled paddy and rice from farmers in the coming months. This step is taken to anticipate the impact of the El Niño phenomenon, which has the potential to persist until the end of the year.
Rizal stated that Bulog has prepared various scenarios to face the risks of this extreme weather, including contingency measures to maintain supply.
“Regarding El Niño… we, along with all staff and directors, have planned several alternative contingency steps,” said Rizal during a press conference at his office in Jakarta on Monday (13/4/2026).
Rizal said that his side sees the harvest momentum in May to July as an opportunity to strengthen national rice reserves. According to him, the hot weather conditions during the harvest peak would actually benefit farmers, as it helps the drying process of unmilled paddy, thereby improving the quality of the harvest.
“From those contingency steps, thank God, if in the months of May, June, July, during the harvest peaks, it’s hot, farmers will be even happier. The unmilled paddy will dry even better,” he explained.
“So we are urging the regional leaders (pinwil) and branch heads of Bulog throughout the country to maximise the early harvest up to July. Because to anticipate if the El Niño prolongs until November and so on,” he added.
To that end, Bulog has instructed all regional and branch offices to optimise the absorption of farmers’ harvest results during that period.
“So we have conveyed to all regional ranks, both Bulog regions and branches, to absorb and maximise the harvest up to July. So that the 4 million tonne target can be absorbed as much as possible,” he said.
With this accelerated absorption strategy, Bulog hopes to secure national rice stocks earlier before the broader impacts of El Niño are felt.
Separately, Head of Institutional Relations Division of Perum Bulog, Epi Sulandari, revealed that the current government rice stock has reached 4.647 million tonnes. This government rice reserve (CBP) is now distributed to regions across Indonesia.
In addition to the CBP, Bulog also holds 21,582 tonnes of commercial rice. Thus, the total volume of rice controlled by Bulog currently stands at 4.668 million tonnes.
“The government rice reserve has been distributed throughout Indonesia. Including to Region III, regions where rice prices are still rising quite high. Also to DTPK (Remote, Border, Archipelagic) areas mentioned earlier by the Deputy,” she said during the 2026 Regional Inflation Control Coordination Meeting, broadcast on the Kemendagri YouTube channel on Monday (13/4/2026).
“We have conveyed to all Bulog warehouses throughout Indonesia. Including cooking oil stocks of 104,660 kilolitres. This will be used for food assistance needs as well as for price stabilisation in SP2KP (Basic Needs Market Monitoring System) markets,” she added.