BPS Praises Govt's Ability to Keep Food Prices Stable

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) ensures that Indonesia's food condition is still stable at a time when many countries are experiencing high inflation.

"The government is excellent at controlling food prices because the rising cost is only seasonal pricing, such as red chillies and bird's eye chillies," said Head of BPS Margo Yuwono at the Public Hearing Meeting (RDPU) which was held at the Jakarta MPR/DPR building, Wednesday, December 7, 2022.

The increase in seasonal food prices, Margo continued, is a challenge that must be mutually managed. One solution is to provide a storage warehouse. "The challenge is how the result of the harvest is stored and have enough warehouses to store like chillies and shallots so they don't rot, storing during harvesting needs to be managed," he said.

However, he reiterated that the current stability of food prices is quite rational due to it being only affected by seasonal factors, moreover, it cannot be predicted as related to natural conditions.

"Rationally it is sufficient because it is only affected by seasonal factors. But if our general market inflation is on a very good record compared to other countries, then it's safe in regards to the condition in 2022 and our economic growth can be good. Our inflation rate is number two under Japan. That is if inflation is low, then prices for some commodities will be normal," he said.

Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo added that according to the balance sheet prediction, there are 12 staple food commodities for January-December 2022 that are in a safe condition. The prognosis includes corn rice, shallots, red chillies, chicken meat, eggs, chicken, and cooking oil.

"And it can be fully met from domestic products. However, for the commodities of soybeans, garlic, buffalo beef and white crystal sugar, apart from domestic products, they also come from imports," he said.

The prognosis for the balance of basic commodities from January to December 2022 is as follows, temporary numbers for rice products are 31.9 million tons, corn 17.3 million tons, soybeans 304.1 thousand tons, chillies 995.1 thousand tons, cayenne pepper 948.9 thousand tons, shallots 1.1 million tons, garlic 2.8 thousand tons, buffalo beef 445.3 thousand tons, purebred chicken meat 3.7 million tons, purebred chicken eggs 5.6 million tons, production of white crystal sugar 2.4 million tons and cooking oil equivalent of 6.1 million tons.

"The provisional rate for rice production in 2022 is under the data submitted by BPS, total rice production is 31.9 million tons, with production during January-June of 18.54 million, the two highest harvest seasons and an estimate for July-December of 13.36 million tons with total rice consumption in 2022 of 30.2 million tons. So from these data, there is a surplus of 1.7 million tons," said the Minister of Agriculture.

TEMPO.CO | IMAJI LASAHIDO (INTERN)

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