Improving Agricultural Market Performance:

Developing Agricultural Market Information Systems

6.2.1.4

Badan Urusan Logistik (BULOG) and MIS in Indonesia

The Bureau of Logistics, that is Badan Urusan Logistik (BULOG) is a government-owned food

marketing company. It is the keymarket institution through which the Government of Indonesia

intervenes in agricultural markets in the country. The Government is mainly involved in

stabilizing the price of rice through BULOG's guaranteed purchase of rice from domestic

producers at a set price as well as through its import activities (WTO, 2013). The procurement

price for rice purchases is usually determined before the planting season (around October),

taking into account factors such as moisture content; impurities; broken grains; and whitening

agents.

According to GAIN (2017), in February 2017 the Government of Indonesia issued Presidential

Decree No. 20/2017, moving BULOG’s authority on issues related to the procurement, import,

management of government stocks, and government purchasing prices of paddy and rice to the

Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). As a consequence, BULOG will continue its role as the

implementer of these programs, but all decisions will be taken by MoA (GAIN, ibid).

BULOG’s food price stabilisation role involves selling into the domestic market as well as

engaging in managed imports and exports, especially of rice, in order to stabilise prices. BULOG

publishes informati

n its buying prices as well as stock levels for various staple foods, mainly

through its websit

. Figure 35 is an illustration of the publication. This information is

perceived by marke

ctors as indicative of conditions in the markets in which BULOG trades

and therefore partly informs their marketing strategies.

Figure 35: Information on Price and Stocks of Staple Food Commodities on BULOG Website

Source

(accessed 25-10-2017)

6.2.1.5

Utilisation of Market Information By WFP In Indonesia

The

World Food Programme (WFP)

produces Food Security Monitoring Bulletins which cover

topics such as crop production, demand for and prices of major food products and weather

24 BULOG website: http://www.bulog.co.id/