Zulhas Urges Public Not to Panic Buy, Food Stocks Secure

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) has asked the public not to rush to buy up food stocks. Zulhas stated that Indonesia’s food supplies are adequate and not constrained, so people need not worry about the impact of the war in the Middle East. “So there’s no need to worry, especially to compete in buying excessive stocks, no need. Just enough, because the stocks are safe and under control,” Zulhas said when met at Pasar Minggu market in South Jakarta on Saturday (28/3/2026). President Prabowo Subianto’s food policy is already appropriate because it anticipated the potential for war far in advance. “We are grateful that the President’s policy from far ahead is right, that we must achieve food self-sufficiency,” Zulhas said. Prabowo had announced in early January that Indonesia achieved rice self-sufficiency because it did not import from abroad throughout 2025. “So insyaallah, if the rice this year to next year our stocks are safe,” Zulhas added. Stocks of staple goods like corn, chicken meat, eggs, and vegetables are also secure because they are produced domestically. Meanwhile, food items like wheat and soybeans that still rely on imports are also unaffected by the war because they are supplied from European countries and the United States. As is known, the war in the Middle East has impacted restrictions on traffic in the Strait of Hormuz waters. That condition has caused world oil prices to soar because exports from Gulf countries as major fuel producers are hampered. The rise in oil prices is pushing up logistics costs because they depend on fuel.