TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government had ordered the national logistics agency (Bulog) to fully absorb locally-produced corns upon entering its grand harvest to anticipate a drop in corn prices.
Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman said that Probolinggo currently has corn fields up to 3,000 hectares that are ready to harvest. The prices of corn there are Rp4,000 per kilogram.
“The prices now at the farmers’ level is Rp4,000. It could drop even further coming into the peak harvest season. Which is why we anticipated this from now,” said Minister Amran on Tuesday.
Amran also explained that the corn product absorption must also be done by Bulog’s warehouses as an anticipative measure to face the famine season that is expected to fall in October.
This move on stockpiling Bulog warehouses with locally-grown corn is also a form of preparation to avoid having to import corn from overseas in 2019s year-end, other than offering 900,000 units of corn dryers to help achieve the desired water content in the corn products.
