Logistics agency launches rice market operations
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)