Regulations
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.
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)
The 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.
