Stabilize Rice Prices, Bambang: Bandung City Government Takes a Number of Efforts
The Bandung City Government is trying to stabilize the price of rice so that people can meet their needs affordably.
According to the Acting Mayor of Bandung, Bambang Tirtoyuliono, various efforts will be made, including checking the availability of Bulog rice at the Bulog Warehouse for rice commodities.
"Ensuring regional government food reserves, encouraging Bulog to distribute SPHP rice through retail and modern shops, carrying out the Cheap Food Movement (GPM)," said Bambang.
There was a decline, namely medium rice, premium rice, red cayenne pepper, Tanjung red chili.
Currently, the price for medium-range has fallen from IDR 15,500 to IDR 15,000, above the HET of 37.6 percent.
"This is because it is still the planting season, so rice production tends to be lower," said Bambang at the High Level Meeting ahead of the National Religious Holidays (HBKN) Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, at the Amarossa Hotel, Wednesday 6 March 2024.
"Meanwhile premium rice fell from IDR 17,250 to IDR 17,000 from the HET of 22.3 percent," he added.
Bambang revealed that even though rice prices are still unstable, the inflation achievement for Bandung City in February 2024 is 1.95 percent (YoY). Bandung City's inflation is the lowest among the ten districts and cities in West Java, which are the sample for calculations by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
"The contribution to inflation in February was rice, red chilies, purebred chicken eggs, chicken meat, cooking oil and potatoes. Also contributing to deflation were cayenne peppers and red onions," he explained.
Bambang said that there were 8 recommendations during the 2024 HKBN coordination meeting. One of them was sufficient availability of 12 staple foods before the month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
"Now we are preparing anticipation. We must maintain security stability during the fasting month and Idul Fitri," he said.
As for the development of Kepokmas prices for March 2024. In the first week of March what went up was purebred chicken meat and purebred chicken eggs.
In the same place, the Head of the Bandung City Economic Section, Tubagus Agus Mulyadi, revealed that Bandung City inflation for February 2024 was in the lowest position compared to the 10 sample cities for inflation calculations by BPS, namely 1.95 percent (YoY).
The share of inflation in Bandung City is rice at 0.25 percent, red chili peppers (0.07 percent) and rice with side dishes (0.05 percent), purebred chicken eggs 0.05 percent, gold jewelry (0.02 percent), potatoes (0.01 percent) and purebred chicken meat (0.01 percent).
Nevertheless, rice is the biggest contributor to inflation. This is due to the postponement of the planting period due to changes in El Nino weather so that the supply of rice is reduced on the market, which has an impact on increasing rice prices nationally.
"However, in general, Bandung City's food commodities are still relatively stable, even though before the HKBN there was an increase in certain commodities," he said.
He revealed, to reduce the increase in rice prices at the consumer level, the Bandung City Government, in collaboration with Bulog and stakeholders, has and will carry out cheap medium rice market operations 30 times spread across sub-districts in Bandung City and also a cheap food movement 39 times.
"Hopefully this activity can reduce the burden on people's expenses in meeting their needs," he said. (yan)**
Head of the Bandung City Communication and Information Office
Yayan A. Brilyana
