Food Availability and Affordable Prices One of the Indicators of the Success of the Christmas and New Year Holidays
Jakarta – Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Arief Prasetyo Adi, said that his party has ensured the availability of strategic staple foods and price stability during Christmas 2024 and New Year 2025 (Nataru).
“Ahead of Christmas and New Year, we ensure that our strategic staple food stocks are sufficient. Regarding prices, the government of course always maintains the price level so that it is not too low and not too high,” said Arief Prasetyo Adi in his statement.
This step is one indicator of the government’s success in maintaining the balance of people’s needs during the year-end holidays. President Prabowo Subianto himself previously emphasized the importance of national food self-sufficiency so that Indonesia can become a food barn.
“I emphasize again that we must be self-sufficient in food, we must have a national food barn, a provincial food barn, a district food barn, a village food barn,” said President Prabowo at the handover of the DIPA and the 2025 APBN Regional Transfer Book.
The steps towards food self-sufficiency are believed to be increasingly solid with the availability of strategic food stocks that are considered safe. For example, the rice stock managed by Perum Bulog until the end of the year is estimated to reach 2 million tons. Based on the 2024 National Food Balance Projection, the total national rice stock reaches 8.398 million tons.
Not only rice, other food stocks are also sufficient. Corn stocks are estimated to reach 3.665 million tons, consumption sugar 1.478 million tons, and broiler chicken meat around 283 thousand tons. Meanwhile, broiler chicken eggs are projected to be 177 thousand tons, followed by beef and buffalo meat at 68 thousand tons.
Other commodities such as large chilies, cayenne peppers, shallots, and garlic are also in a safe position with estimated stocks of 53 thousand tons, 26 thousand tons, 22.9 thousand tons, and 22.4 thousand tons respectively. Meanwhile, cooking oil is available up to 336 thousand liters and soybeans reach 372 thousand tons.
Through this policy, the government hopes that the public can experience a peaceful Nataru holiday with sufficient food stocks and affordable prices. This is proof that food price stability and affordability are important keys in assessing the government’s success in facing the end-of-year holiday moment.
