GOVT PREPARING FOOD STOCKS IN FACE OF FASTING MONTH

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, July 12 (ANTARA) - Like in previous years, the issue of food stocks is a crucial one during the run-up to Ramadhan, the holy fasting month for Muslims, and its post-festivities, locally called "Labaran."    The government has further assured that food stocks in the country will be enough to last during the holy month that¿s expected to start either on July 20th or 21st.         "We have big stocks stored at the warehouses of the state logistics board Bulog," revealed Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa on Tuesday.          He explained that Bulog's rice stocks totaled 1.5 million tons and it had procured about 2.4 million tons of rice since January this year.          In the meantime, Agriculture Minister Suswono asserted that the country's rice production could reach over 7 million tons by September 2012.          Based on the data furnished by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the volume of rice production showed an increase of 4.30 percent. "Rice stocks are enough to last during the post-fasting festivities of Lebaran," Suswono asserted.          Regarding the possibility of rice price hikes, the minister said it was possible that rice prices could increase although not significantly.          He said that the ability of Bulog to procure rice from farmers this year was better than that of last year's. Up till now, Bulog has absorbed about 2.4 million tons of rice.          This figure is higher than what was seen during the corresponding period of 2011, which stood at only 1.7 million tons.          The logistics board agency has set itself a target of absorbing rice amounting to about 3 to 3.5 million tons in 2012.          "Presently, a number of regions are waiting to harvest their fields and with the current normal climate continuing, it seems that there is no need to worry about rice production. This will enable Bulog to absorb more rice stocks," he added.          Even though, it is sure that the food stocks are quite enough, the government has still planned to hold a meeting to discuss and evaluate the availability of food stocks next week.          Speaking from the Presidential State Palace on Tuesday, Agriculture minister Suswono said that an evaluation on food stocks would be carried out at the Coordinating ministers' meeting.          "So far we have no problems but we will evaluate the status next week at a coordination meeting on economic affairs," the minister said.          The government will evaluate the availability of stocks of three commodities, namely rice, meat (beef and chicken) and sugar.          Earlier, Acting Director General for Agricultural Product Processing and Marketing Banun Harpini had said that the people did not need to worry about the availability of food stocks during the fasting month and Lebaran.          In order to ensure the availability of meat, the government has proposed an importation of beef during the third and fourth quarters of this year.          Although the government guarantees the availability of food stocks, it also predicts that the prices of a number of commodities might also increase slightly, particularly those of garlic and chili.          Yet, the increase in the prices of the commodities during the run-up to the fasting month is predicted to be within reasonable limits as a result of psychological impacts of increasing demand.          Banun who is also the head of the agricultural quarantine service of the Agricultural Ministry said that the public meat consumption in Indonesia was still low.              It is known that the people's animal protein consumption such as in chicken, beef, egg, milk and others continues to be low. "Therefore, we need to encourage people to increase their animal protein intakes so as to boost production,¿ he claimed.          The per capita consumption of the Indonesian people for chicken is only about 7 kg per year, lower than that of the Malaysians which stands at 36 kg per annum. The Indonesian egg consumption is only about 80 per capita per annum, whereas the Malaysians consume about 311 per capita per year.          However, Banun believes that this number will increase in line with the improvement of their welfare.          "There is a good prospect for animal husbandry industry in the country," he added.          In the meantime, the Indonesian Consumer Institute (YLKI) urged all the relevant services to increase their supervision of food products during Ramadhan.          Chairman of YLKI for West Sumatra Syaharman Zanhar stated that the demand for different types of food products during and the post-fasting month will increase drastically.          He said that the increasing demand could be taken advantage of by irresponsible traders who put sub-standard products in the market. "Therefore, supervision should be tightened," he cautioned.          "We are calling on relevant services and agencies to increase supervision and guarantee goods that are released into the market continue to be safe and secure for public consumption," he said.          He mentioned that these relevant agencies were the Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) and the industrial and trade services, among others.          Syaharman said that it was not impossible that irresponsible parties would take advantage of the momentum of the fasting month to sell expired goods, non standard foods and unregistered with the BPOM.           The YLKI also called on the relevant agencies to supervise the selling of goods prepared for consumption during the breaking of the fast so that they would be free from chemical substance, formaldehyde and borax.***2*** (T.A014/INE/o001) 12-07-2012 15:04