Govt improves rice storage to prevent quality decline: Official

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Agriculture and the State Logistics Board (Bulog) are focused on improving rice storage management to prevent rice quality decline in the future, State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi said.

As the harvest season approaches in the next few weeks, Hadi said the government is preparing new warehouses, which will be co-managed by the central and regional governments.

"The Agriculture Ministry and Bulog are focusing on storage management improvement, as our warehouses need repair, along with the construction of 100 new warehouses," he stated when met after attending a limited meeting at President Prabowo Subianto's private residence in Jakarta on Sunday (October 12).

The three-hour limited meeting was attended by Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, ministers, and heads of institutions, including Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan, and Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman.

Furthermore, Hadi informed that the government has noted the discovery of tens of thousands of tons of degraded rice in Bulog warehouses, which will be handled by Bulog and the Agriculture Ministry.

"The rice harvest is expected to increase at the end of this year, as we enter the harvest season, along with the preparation of new warehouses. We have asked the national police and the military to create innovative warehouses and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure food barns in each village," the minister continued.

The National Food Agency (Bapanas) announced last week that 29,990 tons of rice stored in Bulog warehouses had decreased in quality. Of that figure, 26,890 tons were imported rice, and around 3,000 tons were local rice.

Regarding this issue, Agriculture Minister Sulaiman said that this situation was unavoidable given the abundant domestic rice production.

He mentioned that compared to the total stored rice of approximately 4.2 million tons, the amount of degraded rice was about 0.071 percent.

"There was no damaged rice in the past because there was not enough stock. Now, we have abundant stock and we are renting a warehouse with a capacity of 1.2 million tons. We are planning to build a new warehouse," he explained.