Indonesia may further extend its rice handout program by six months until December, despite easing local rice prices, outgoing President Joko Widodo announced on Monday.
The Southeast Asian country has been providing 10 kilograms of rice monthly to more than 20 million low-income families since March 2023 to help them cope with high prices of the staple, as the El Nino weather pattern-fueled drought hit domestic output.
The program, which started in March-June last year, was initially due to end in June after multiple extensions. However, Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, stated that the program has been successful in curbing local rice prices, which are a staple for most of Indonesia’s 270 million population.
“All global food prices are rising. Some are rising very high, and ours are still low. We should be grateful that our increases are not drastic,” Jokowi said in a statement.
The extension of the program is subject to budget availability, the president added, without explaining the source of rice for the additional program.
According to Bulog, Indonesia’s food procurement firm, the country has bought 472,279 metric tons of rice from domestic harvests as of May 8, while its stocks stood at 1.8 million tons. Indonesia has also imported 1.2 million tons of rice so far this year out of the allotted 3.6 million tons.
Bulog has recently issued another international tender to buy about 300,000 metric tons of rice, European traders said on Monday.
The decision to extend the rice handout program comes despite the fact that rice prices have eased in Indonesia as stocks have improved during the harvest season, according to a statistics bureau official.