October 13, 2025 | 07:32 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, who is also the Presidential Spokesperson, explained that the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) are focused on improving rice storage management to prevent future rice from deteriorating or losing quality.
Pras, Prasetyo's nickname, said that with the harvest season approaching in the next few weeks, the government is preparing new warehouses, which will be managed not only by the central government but also by regional governments.
"The focus of the Ministry of Agriculture and our colleagues at Bulog is on improving storage management, and we need to recognize that our warehouses are in need of repair, including the construction of 100 new warehouses," said Prasetyo Hadi in response to reporters' questions when met in front of President Prabowo Subianto's private residence on Jalan Kertanegara, Jakarta, Sunday evening, October 12, 2025.
In Kertanegara, Prabowo led a limited meeting for approximately three hours with his staff, including Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, ministers and heads of institutions, including Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan, and Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman.
Pras, when asked whether the President had noted the discovery of tens of thousands of tons of rice of degraded quality in Bulog warehouses, replied that the ministers had not directly reported the matter. However, the issue had received special attention from the government, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture and Bulog.
"Thank God, the rice harvest is predicted to increase at the end of this year, approaching the harvest season, and we will prepare new warehouses. The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) have also been asked to create innovative warehouses and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure that village heads are encouraged to return to their food centers, as they once were, with food barns in each village," said Pras.
The National Food Agency (Bapanas) announced last week that 29,990 tons of rice stored in Bulog warehouses had deteriorated in quality. Of that figure, 26,890 tons were imported and around 3,000 tons were locally produced.
Amran Sulaiman, when asked about this issue during a press conference at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Thursday (October 9), stated that this situation was unavoidable given the abundant domestic rice production. Amran then explained that compared to the total stored rice of approximately 4.2 million tons, the amount of degraded rice was only about 0.071 percent.
"Previously, there was no damage because there was no rice, and production was low. Now, there's so much rice that we're renting a warehouse with a capacity of 1.2 million tons. We're planning to build one now," Amran said.
Editor’s Choice: Bulog Readies Rice Distribution for Free Nutritious Meal Program
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