Government Rice Reserve (CBP)
Food Reserve plays an important role in attaining food security of a country, including Indonesia as an agrarian country. Since 2005, the Government has had Government Rice Reserve (CBP) which is managed by BULOG, integrated with BULOG stock and can be accessed at any BULOG warehouses throughout Indonesia.
CBP is a certain amount of rice owned by the Government which funding comes from the state budget and managed by BULOG to meet the community needs of rice, to anticipate food shortage problems, price fluctuations, emergency situation due to disaster and food invulnerability, and to fulfill the ASEAN Emergency Rice Reserve (AERR) agreement.
The initial amount of CBP is 350 thousand tons and physically integrated with BULOG operational stock to make it easy to utilize and available at any time. Local Government can access it for CBP purposes according to the procedure as stated.
Benefits of CBP have been proven in overcoming natural disasters. Rice at BULOG warehouses throughout Indonesia can be immediately utilized by the Local Government to fulfill food needs of displaced disaster victims. Therefore food security for households can still be maintained, and food is always available, affordable and stable supply can be guaranteed.
CBP has also proven in 2006,2007 and early 2008 when rice price climbed up and distressed the public. CBP has been utilized for Pure Market Operation (OPM) (in 2006-2007) as well as for Raskin Specific Market Operation (OPK) whose target is Raskin recipient households (from 2007 to 2008).
Similarly, in the event of the world rice price crisis in 2008, sufficient stocks maintained by BULOG which include CBP has brought positive influence on the stability of domestic rice prices because the people feel secure about the Government's ability to sustain supplies and prices and prevent speculation. World rice price which rose more than 3 times wasn’t followed by an increase in domestic rice price. Domestic rice market could be isolated from world price fluctuations due to the adequacy of stock and domestic supply.
CBP management has become more important because the fluctuating international market situation inevitably will affect domestic market. The Government stock must be sufficient to secure public need for food. and anticipate for more frequent disaster. Gajah Mada University Team in 2003 mentioned that the ideal amount of government rice reserve is about 750 thousand – 1,25 million tons.
Moreover, up to now most of household expenditures are for food, therefore the instability of food prices will greatly affect public real income and reduce the low-income public purchasing power in particular.
PCBP Program can be extended both as a safety valve when food deficiency occurs or food surplus which cause stressing on producer price. Therefore the demand side of CBP plays an important role in as the consumer price stabilization instruments and supply guarantee, whereas at the supply side is to protect the producer price (price support). (BULOG@2010)