Perumda Pasar Suggests Affirmative Policy for BGN to Involve MSMEs in SPPG

Director of Perumda Pasar Tohaga in Bogor Regency, Hari Setiawan, has suggested that the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) adopt an affirmative policy involving local governments to include micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and traders in the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG). “As an evaluation, is it possible for BGN to have an affirmative policy by involving UMKM, traders, or economic actors? Because so far, when asked, can traditional traders hold SPPG? In Bogor alone, there are six million residents served by our markets, so why can these traders only be spectators or the second layer, instead of becoming direct business actors?” he said during a BGN podcast monitored in Jakarta on Monday. He believes that an affirmative policy from the government requiring the absorption of products through traditional markets can foster a more robust grassroots economy, ensuring market traders are not mere bystanders. “Thus, there is a local food ecosystem to support the Free Nutritious Meal Programme, so that this grassroots economy can truly revolve,” he stated. Hari highlighted several challenges faced by traditional market traders in gaining direct access to SPPG, including the absence of standardised pricing or price transparency from BGN. “This needs to be clarified because I see that SPPG prices vary. The traders are not aggregated; imagine, in one market alone there are thousands of traders, and across our 20 markets there could be tens of thousands. It is impossible for SPPG to deal with 15 individual traders, so aggregation is needed. A credible aggregator is required, for instance, regional-owned enterprises across Indonesia could act as aggregators like we do at Pasar Tohaga,” he explained. He stressed the importance of good governance regarding a fair pricing policy set by BGN as a solution to allow traditional market traders to grow and move together with SPPG to ensure the success of the Free Nutritious Meal Programme. “The highest retail price set in SPPG does not yet have a standard, except perhaps for commodities like cooking oil and sugar, which are limited. However, a reference price for foodstuffs does not yet exist, and this perhaps needs to be agreed upon even though it may differ from region to region,” he said.