Gov’t Ensures Food Availability, Price Stability ahead of Christmas, New Year’s Holidays

Ahead of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the Government has taken anticipatory measures to maintain food availability, ensure price stability, and mitigate El Niño’s impact.

These measures include strengthening food reserves, market operations, interregional distribution, and price monitoring to keep prices affordable and meet public needs.

These measures were discussed during a limited coordination meeting on food affairs led by Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan in Jakarta, Monday (10/26).

Zulkifli underscored that stable food prices are important as they directly affect public purchasing power. Nearing the end of the year, the Government has strengthened coordination among line ministries and regional governments to ensure supply availability, smooth distribution, and readiness to meet growing demands.

“Nearing Christmas and New Year, we must prepare early to have enough time to anticipate various possibilities. We must strengthen the Government’s food reserves, prepare logistical supply, and distribute them optimally,” he said.

During the meeting, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian stated that several commodity prices remain high in certain regions.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, prices still rose in the third week of October, especially for red chili and bird’s eye chili, due to crop failure in producing regions caused by extreme weather and prolonged droughts. Additionally, the Government has continued to monitor the prices of rice, broiler chicken meat, and broiler chicken eggs.

In response, the Government facilitates interregional trade to distribute food from regions with a surplus to those with high demand.

Regional governments and state-owned logistics enterprise Perum Bulog have also implemented market operations in 134 regions where rice prices surged. Rice distribution under the Food Supply and Price Stabilization (SPHP) program serves as an important means to provide affordable rice.

“We have complete data on the regencies and know which commodities require market operations,” Tito said.

Regarding rice supply, Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman, who also attended the meeting, stated that the national rice supply is at its highest level on record.

According to Andi, his ministry has ensured that the national rice supply remains adequate ahead of Christmas and New Year, strengthened by the Government’s rice supply stored by Bulog, which reached 4.5 million tons, and continued domestic production.

The Government has also prepared mitigation measures against El Niño by optimizing land, improving irrigation, using pumps for irrigation, and using drought-resistant seeds. The Government’s rice supply will also be used to support market intervention and maintain rice availability for the public.

“We need not worry about El Niño because we have taken anticipatory measures, including pump use, land optimization, irrigation, and drought-resistant seeds,” Andi said. (PR of Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs/DND – PR of Ministry of State Secretariat) (DH/AW)