Jokowi: “This import is to maintain the reserves availability”

Presidential Debate Round 2

Jokowi: “This import is to maintain the reserves availability”

Semarang, Indonesia    /   Monday, February 18th, 2019    /    8.31

Presidential candidate number 01 and 02 at last night debate

SEMARANG – The Presidential candidate number 01 Joko Widodo stated in last night debate that Indonesia still doing an import for the purpose of reserves availability.

On the presidential debate that was held last night (17/2) at The Sultan Hotel & Residence Jakarta, there was a section discussing about the import policy in foodstuff.

Prabowo, the Presidential candidate number 02, criticized the food import policy carried out by the administration under Joko Widodo. He questioned the rice imports policy issues even though the government said there was a surplus in it.

He said the economy must be for the people, not the people for the economy.

"Article 33 for us is a safeguard and security for farmers to ask for a good price. They asked us the government not to import at the harvest time," Prabowo said.

Presidential candidate number 01 Joko Widodo acknowledged that during his four years in leadership as a president, the government still applied import policies for various commodities, one of which was rice.

According to Jokowi, the national rice reserve stock is indeed in surplus. In 2018, national rice production reached 33 million tons. Meanwhile, the consumption level reached 29 million tons. Thus, there is a surplus of rice reserves of 3 million tons.

Then Jokowi revealed several reasons why the government continued to import rice must have a surplus. Jokowi said that the import policy aims to maintain the availability of rice stock in the event of a natural disaster and crop failure. In addition, import policies also aim to stabilize domestic rice prices.

"Why do we import, because this import is to maintain the availability of reserves, to stabilize prices, we also have it for reserves if there is a disaster, we must have reserves if we fail," said Jokowi.