According to the President Director of National Logistics Agency (Bulog) Bayu Krisnamurthi (01/29), the extreme climate change, super El Nino caused Indonesian farmers to experience crop failure. Further, 22 countries stopped their rice export to Indonesia, resulting in shocks in rice and food prices around the world.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — At the beginning of the year, the average retail prices of rice, which previously stagnant at around Rp12,000 (USD 76 cents)/kilogram to Rp 14,000 (USD88 cents) / kg, spiked significantly to around Rp15,000/kg (USD95 cents) for medium rice and Rp16,000/ kg for premium rice.
According to the President Director of National Logistics Agency (Bulog) Bayu Krisnamurthi (01/29), the extreme climate change, super El Nino caused Indonesian farmers to experience crop failure. Further, 22 countries, such as Russia, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uganda, stopped their rice export to Indonesia, resulting in shocks in rice and food prices around the world.
Bayu also confirmed that in an attempt to rein in rising rice prices, Bulog will rerun social assistance (Bansos) in the form of rice. Bansos will be delivered to 22 million beneficiary families.
“The number of beneficiary families this year enhanced by 8% compared to last year, which is only 21.3 million,” said Bayu.
He hopes some regions will not experience crop failure this March. Thus, the rice prices can return to stability due to the surplus of rice stock.
Regarding the 22 countries that banned rice export to Indonesia, Bayu affirmed that this condition happened because the countries also experienced crop failure, so the rice supply was only enough for their people.
