Logistics agency launches rice market operations
JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the National Logistics Agency Beddu Amang has ordered his local subordinates to conduct market operations without waiting for individual orders from the headquarters, in order to stem increases in the price of rice.
The logistics agency said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post yesterday that a meeting last Tuesday between Beddu and heads of the agency's local offices in order to coordinate the steps necessary to hold back rice prices, which have been soaring lately.
The logistics agency, established in 1967, was set up to regulate the country's primary food crops, including rice, flour, sugar and soybeans, through market operations.
Beddu asked the heads of the agency's local offices to make sure that there was always a sufficient amount of rice stocked in their storehouses.
He told them to supply rice to market places at the slightest rise in prices, so the public would see that the local offices were prepared to handle the situation.
Quoting President Soeharto, who ordered the agency earlier this month to keep rice prices at a stable level, Beddu stressed that market operations need not wait for approval from the agency's central office in Jakarta.
Beddu said that, to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness, local offices should adjust their market operation activities to the conditions in their respective regions.
He also asked his subordinates to appoint distributors and retailers to implement the agency's market operations.
Each person in the distribution line, he said, must be given clear responsibilities in all strategic markets, thereby making the price of rice controllable.
Beddu said that, if necessary, a special team established by the agency could be deployed to assist with market operations in a particular area.
Operations
According to the statement, provinces which have conducted market operations as of yesterday were Aceh (with a distribution of 113 tons of rice), North Sumatra (3,370 tons), Riau (3,100 tons), Jambi (520 tons), South Sumatra (3,400 tons), Lampung (350 tons), Jakarta (670 tons), East Kalimantan (250 tons), Central Kalimantan (55 tons), East Nusa Tenggara (218 tons), Maluku (822 tons) and Irian Jaya (1,337 tons).
The agency has stipulated that rice from its local offices is to be sold to distributors at between Rp 670 (29 U.S. cents) and Rp 775 per kilogram, depending on the quality of the rice.
Beddu predicted earlier this month that prices of rice would increase by between 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent each month in response to the end of the harvest months and the beginning of the planting season.
Press reports from across the country, however, say that prices have soared by up to 30 percent. Apart from diseases and unfavorable weather, analysts say the hike is also due to speculators in the market. (pwn)