Main Director of Perum Bulog Budi Waseso targets that half a million tons or 500 thousand tons of imported rice will arrive in Indonesia on February 15 2023, and be distributed directly to the public.
Apart from that, his party will also buy rice from local farmers when the main harvest arrives, in March tomorrow.
"Now there's only the rest. We'll allocate 2023 for January-February and I limit it to February 15, so it doesn't collide with the harvest period," said Buwas at the Banten Regional Police, Friday (10/2).
Buwas claims that only a small amount of rice imports that have not yet reached Indonesia. Rice from various countries is on its way to lean.
The process of shipping to loading and unloading is also hampered by bad weather at sea. Even when unloading the rice from the ship, the weather is fine, sunny, if it rains, it can damage the quality of imported rice.
"Right now there are still a small portion that haven't arrived, delays due to the Nataru holiday transportation and the weather, and procedures. Not to mention unloading, the weather has to be clear, otherwise there will be problems, there will be lots of obstacles. But God willing, this mid-February all will come in and immediately we deliver," he said.
The former Kabareskrim explained that the responsibility for food security does not only belong to Bulog, but that it needs cooperation from various parties dealing with food and agriculture, so that rice yields can be abundant and Indonesia is self-sufficient in food.
The man who served as Head of the National Narcotics Agency for three years claimed that he was forced to import rice due to an emergency. Food imports for the majority of Indonesians must be carried out due to declining production which is affected by weather and natural disasters in rice-producing areas.
"One of the things we don't import is rice production which needs to be increased. At the sametime I say, we don't have to blame each other, but let's work on how we can increase production, rice farming, our land is fertile and we can do it, but this is one obstacle, the weather, natural conditions, yesterday's weather anomaly, not to mention natural disasters in several rice production areas, so that will automatically have an impact on quantity and production," he said.
