Government Accelerates Food Aid Distribution to Support Consumer Purchasing Power
The National Food Agency (Bapanas) and Perum Bulog are accelerating the implementation of food aid distribution comprising rice and cooking oil in 2026 to maintain public purchasing power. The programme follows President Prabowo Subianto’s directive to ensure food interventions are quickly felt by beneficiaries across Indonesia.
I Gusti Ketut Astawa, Deputy for Food Availability and Stabilisation at Bapanas, stated that acceleration is being carried out through strengthened budget preparedness, distribution planning, and commodity stock fulfilment. Bapanas has coordinated operational steps with Bulog to ensure simultaneous and measured distribution across all regions.
“Food aid will not be delayed. This is already a directive from the President and must be implemented immediately. Preparations must be thorough because the distribution is large. The goods must be complete first using the methods prepared by Bulog,” Ketut said in Jakarta on Saturday, 28 February 2026.
As part of the acceleration, Bapanas has notified Bulog’s Director General regarding budget availability in the Budget Implementation Detail List (DIPA). Bulog has been asked to immediately prepare a national distribution schedule so that distribution can commence promptly.
The next focus is ensuring adequate stock of Minyakita (the people’s cooking oil) sourced from the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) policy. The Minyakita requirement for this year’s food aid programme stands at 132.98 million litres, making the collection of producer allocations a priority.
“The assignment is already underway. We are currently collecting allocations of Minyakita cooking oil. Once stock is available, Bulog will distribute immediately and it must be done as quickly as possible,” Ketut said.
Bapanas Chief Andi Amran Sulaiman has allocated Minyakita supplies to 73 cooking oil producers as of 24 February. Producers have been asked to coordinate intensively with Bulog to meet DMO targets for the food aid programme.
This distribution obligation is regulated under Trade Minister Regulation Number 43 of 2025, which requires producers to distribute at least 35 per cent of DMO realisation to Bulog or food SOEs as Line 1 Distributors. Purchase prices follow government-set distributor-level provisions.
The food aid programme for rice and cooking oil this year is supported by a budget of Rp 11.92 trillion and targets 33.2 million beneficiaries across Indonesia. The five provinces with the largest numbers of recipients are West Java, East Java, Central Java, North Sumatra, and Banten.
Each recipient will receive 10 kilogrammes of rice and 2 litres of cooking oil per month. For two-month distribution, Bulog has prepared 664,800 tonnes of rice and 132,900 kilolitres of cooking oil.