Indonesia's National Food Agency Accelerates SPHP Rice Distribution as Prices Climb in Zones 2 and 3
Regional governments and the police food task force across 38 provinces are moving with Bulog to speed up market operations and food aid covering 33.2 million families through December.
The National Food Agency (Bapanas) is accelerating distribution of subsidized rice (SPHP) and rice food aid to price-sensitive zones 2 and 3 — parts of Sumatra, NTT, Kalimantan and the Maluku–Papua region — where premium and medium rice prices have risen. Deputy Hermawan said regional governments and the police food task force in all 38 provinces are coordinating with Bulog as sole distributor, with an additional 200,000 tons allocated; realization stood at 155,300 tons, or 77.6 percent, as of November 5.
Food aid for the October–December period covers 33.2 million families at 30 kilograms each, roughly one million tons in total. Bulog's government rice reserve stands at about 4.6 million tons against 6.7 million tons of warehouse capacity.
Analysts have meanwhile flagged leakage risks in the program — including repackaging of SPHP rice as premium rice — and stress the need for selective distribution and stock rotation, underscoring that distribution and documentation, not production, are now the binding constraints on Indonesia's rice price stabilization effort.