Head of Bapanas, Arief Prasetyo Adi, has stated that his agency supports the Ombudsman's recommendation regarding garlic imports, to improve national food management. "Responding to the Ombudsman's concern on the process of garlic imports, we affirm that Bapanas is focusing on the calculation of national requirements and comparing it to the production projection.”
According to Arief, the calculation going forward will improve in accuracy since it's being conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture. Furthermore, he stated that his agency will try to create balance in the food ecosystem from upstream to downstream. He also stressed that the import realization will not hurt the prices set by farmers. As for the imports, they need flexibility in the prices to adapt to much lower prices in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the need for garlic necessitated foreign production since domestic production was inadequate. Indonesia requires over 55,700 tons of garlic per month or 669,000 tons per year. However, Indonesia's garlic production for garlic is 23,000 tons this year, far from enough.
Source: en.tempo.co
