The General Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog) plans to export corn and rice to neighboring countries. Exports are carried out because the production of corn and rice is in a surplus. Head of the Commodity Procurement Division of Perum Bulog, Budi Cahyanto, said that Perum Bulog would cooperate with the Philippine Embassy to realize the corn export. The exported corn will come from local farmers. "I have contacted the Indonesian Embassy in Manila, so that I can help realize corn exports. We will export them in the near future," Budi said in the webinar "Food Challenges Facing Global Crisis", Friday (19/8). Budi explained, there are still problems to produce corn as animal feed, namely the problem of drying. He plans to build six corn drying centers (CDC) with a production capacity for each point of 120 tons per day. Currently, Bulog's total dry corn production reaches 108,000 tons per year. In addition to improving the quality of corn to be exported, Budi said the investment of six feed units will allow Bulog to have revolving stock. Thus, Bulog can control the price and availability of corn in the country. "The operation of the CDC will begin in December 2022. This corn is for chicken feed, so hopefully the stock will be safe," said Budi. Budi said that the CDC facility is important because corn is a food commodity that easily expires due to mold. drying with CDC will increase the shelf life of post-harvest corn. Budi noted that the surplus volume of national corn production reached 3 million tons per year. However, this condition cannot be utilized because of the lack of drying facilities in the country.
Besides corn, according to Budi, Bulog is also ready to export rice to several neighboring countries and countries in the Middle East. Rice exports are likely to be carried out for the types of Rojolele and Pandan Wangi. Budi assessed that domestically produced rice has advantages over the majority of rice currently circulating from Thailand and Vietnam. According to him, rice made in Indonesia is fluffier after cooking, while rice from Thailand and Vietnam is drier. The Central Statistics Agency recorded that the total rice production in 2019-2021 was consistently more than 31 million tons. In 2021, the national rice production volume will reach 31.4 million tons, while the average national rice consumption is around 30 million tons. Rice stock at the end of the first quarter of 2022 was 9.11 million tons, while at the end of the first semester of 2022 it reached 9.71 units. The largest stock as of June 2022 is in households or as much as 6.6 million tons. The average stock of rice in consumer households is 9-10 kilograms (kg) per household. Meanwhile, the average stock in producer households reaches 390-443 kg per producer household. The largest stock is kept by Bulog, which reached 1.11 million tons. Meanwhile, the stock at traders is 1.04 million tons, in mills around 690,000 tons, and in hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other industries as much as 280,000 tons.
