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February 4, 2025 | 10:43 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan alias Zulhas, announced that the distribution of food aid and subsidized rice through the Food Price Supply Stability (SPHP) program will be temporarily suspended during the harvest season.
“It’s not stopped. [It’s paused] because the great harvest comes earlier in January, February. After that, it (food aid) will [be distributed again],” Zulhas said when met in Jakarta on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.
He explained that this measure aims to maintain stable rice prices for consumers. Distributing aid now, he said, would artificially lower rice prices, negatively impacting farmers.
He also assured that social assistance programs will continue despite government budget adjustments. The total allocation will remain at 900,000 tons, or Rp16.6 trillion. He anticipated that food assistance distribution would resume in April. “We will have a meeting in April but we don't know when yet, that's for sure,” he said.
Previously, the government had planned to manage inflation by distributing food aid from January to February 2025. Arief Prasetyo, Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), stated that 16 million families were slated to receive assistance. “It is hoped that it can help stabilize rice inflation,” Arief said in a written statement on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
Arief noted that the number of social assistance recipients in 2025 is lower than the 22 million families reached the previous year. He attributed this adjustment to a decrease in the percentage of the population living in poverty.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) indicates that the number of people in poverty in March 2024 was 25.22 million, a reduction of 0.68 million compared to March 2023.
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