The representatives from the APTERR Secretariat including Dr. Choomjet Karnjanakesorn, General Manager; Mr. Toshiki Tojo, Japanese Expert; and the APTERR staff, on 16 August 2022, visited the National Food Agency (NFA) of Indonesia to attend the meeting on enhancing the APTERR’s activities after ten years of service. The aims of the meeting were to strengthen the APTERR mechanism and have mutual understanding among relevant parties on the next step of the APTERR’s activities
The meeting was presided over by Mr. Arief Prasetyo Adi, Chief of the NFA. He emphasised the significance of rice reserves under APTERR in dealing with emergency and expressed his intention to work in close collaboration with the APTERR Secretariat in order to achieve sustainable food security. In addition, Mr. Tojo introduced Japan’s new initiatives; ‘pre-cooked rice’ and ‘School Rice Distribution’ under Tier 3 programme to all participants. The meeting was satisfied with fruitful outcomes in supporting the implementation of APTERR in the near future.
Apart from the APTERR Secretariat and the NFA, there were representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Indonesia Logistics Bureau (BULOG) participating in the meeting.
The NFA was established based on Indonesia’s Presidential Regulation No.66 (2021) to ensure nation’s food sufficiency and efficient food policy management in overcoming the complex challenges including rising food price and supply shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and external shocks by the geopolitical conflicts disrupting the global food supply chains. There are 11 mandatory commodities under the NFA consisting of rice, maize, soybeans, consumption sugar, shallot and garlic, eggs, ruminant meat, poultry meat, chili, cooking oil and wheat. For the comprehensive food policy and effective management, Indonesia’s state food procurement agency BULOG has been integrated to be under a supervision of the NFA.
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