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View all search resultsRed and White Cooperatives to absorb harvests during price slumps
Since the program’s launch in July last year, President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has added multiple tasks and broadened the cooperatives’ scope of work from grocery stores to managing community oil wells.
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Local empowerment: A man walks past the Red and White Rural Cooperative Melawai outlet on Feb. 23 in the Blok M area of Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. The government plans to import 105,000 commercial vehicles from India to be disbursed for cooperatives across the country. (JP/Iqro Rinaldi)
T
he government has added another function to the newly established Red and White Cooperatives, transforming them into offtakers for agricultural commodities in a bid to stabilize food prices.
Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan emphasized that the cooperatives were designed to serve as “government infrastructure” and that they are more than just grocery stores.
He said the cooperatives would act as buyers when market prices fall below the government benchmark prices for several agricultural commodities, including unhusked rice and corn.
Zulkifli expected that such a mechanism could help maintain the stability of agricultural commodity prices and protect farmers’ incomes from rising market prices.
Additionally, he reaffirmed that the cooperatives would also serve as distributors of state assistance.
“The distribution of social aid and subsidized goods will all be channeled through the cooperatives,” he said following a limited meeting with President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday, as quoted by Kontan.
By expanding their roles, the government aims to turn the cooperatives into strategic tools for strengthening national food security, maintaining food price stability at the farmer level and improving the effectiveness of subsidy distribution to reach villages.
