Government to Import Corn to Stabilize Price of Corn for Animal Feed

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan and Head of the Natinal Food Body Prasetyo Adi talked to the press, in Jakarta, on Monday (09/10) (Photo: Bureau for Public Relations and Protocol of Cabinet Secretariat/Agung)

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan said that the Government would import corn to stabilize the price of corn for animal feed that has been on the rise.

However, the Minister said that the import of corn is only for animal feed, not for human consumption.

“The price of corn for animal feed is increasing significantly. Therefore, we decided to increase the supply by importing 250,000 tons of corn for industry. The imported corn is only for industry, animal feed, not for human consumption,” Zulkifli said after attending a limited meeting on food commodities price stability, particularly the prices of corn, sugar, and rice on Monday (09/10) at Merdeka Palace.

Regarding rice supply, the Minister explained that Indonesia has sufficient supply; however, he acknowledged that although the price of rice in general has not increased, the price at some places have not dropped yet.

He added that to anticipate the impact of El Niño the Government is also collaborating with several others countries for rice supply if needed.

“We have sufficient rice supply. The rice is provided from the Central Government to provincial and regency governments. The distribution is indeed at the close areas such as Jakarta and West Java as the price of rice has dropped there. However, the price of rice in remote areas has not dropped yet, but has not increased as well. The Government has decided to buy more rice though the rice won’t necessarily be brought here later. So, if the stock is ready, we will buy rice. At the required time, we will import rice,” he explained.

On the price of sugar, Zulkifli pointed out that the price has been increasing due to the lack of sugar supply from abroad to cover shortage of domestic supply.

“Sugar importers have just imported sugar for 30%. Therefore, import agreement must be issued. Commodity balance must be set, calculated, and recommended by the industry because we have checked that based on those import agreement and commodity balance, import realization is more or less than 30%,” Zulkifli said. (KS/UN) (GA/EP)