Jokowi holds meeting discussing rice prices

JAKARTA. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo held a plenary Cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss the inflation rate and the increasing prices of rice, the main staple food for Indonesia’s citizens.

"I ask [all of you] to monitor day by day the prices of staple foods because whether the inflation rate goes up or down, it starts there [with those foods]," said Jokowi, who wants to achieve a degree of food sovereignty during his presidency.

He later pointed out the rising prices of rice, saying that it actually could have been predicted December last year, even though bad weather contributed to declining rice production.

This year, rice prices in certain areas of Indonesia have surged more than 30 percent, with Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel blaming the issue on a “rice mafia” looking to push the government to open stalled imports.

However, Jokowi told the Cabinet members that he was upbeat that the government would be able to decrease rice prices within two weeks.

On Tuesday, Jokowi held a meeting at the State Palace with rice trading representatives of Cipinang market. The two sides were optimistic that the prices would decline by around Rp 2,000 per kilogram within two weeks.

Central Statistics Agency (BPS) deputy head for statistics Sasmito Hadi Wibowo said recently that the declining rice production last year was due mostly to seasonal factors such as bad weather.

The latest data from the BPS show that total rice production estimates declined 450,000 tons year-on-year to 70.8 million tons in 2014, a sharp turnaround from a 2.2 million ton increase posted the previous year.

Jokowi wants the total output of rice to rise to 82 million tons by the end of 2019, up more than 15 percent or 11.2 million tons from the current level. (Ina Parlina)