Agricom.id, SAMARINDA – In the Covid-19 pandemic, Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo emphasized that his side would maintain the food security, such as, by activating the pasar mitra tani (PMT) and optimizing the agriculture product absorption.

PMT in every province in Indonesia should maintain the supply so that the price is stable and the people could get the food within economic price.

Head of Badan Ketahanan Pangan, Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Hendriadi said that it is important to get the good food supply in every point and economic price.

“PMT is made to guarantee the supply for the people. The price should be stable too,” he said when visiting PMT in Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, Wednesday (12/8) as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He thought that PMIT should not stabilize the supply and the price because it just tries to balance the market price. He gave example, when the price of rice in the markets gets more expensive, PMT could sell it cheap.

“Why could we do it? Because we are in cooperation with the farmers’ groups to cut of the supply chain from the producers to the consumers,” he said.

PMT in East Kalimantan on Jalan PM Noor, Sempaja, Samarinda sells kinds of commodities that the people need.

Some commodities in the PMT, Wednesday (12/8), were, rice for about Rp 10.000/kg, curly red chili about Rp 31.000/kg, red chili about Rp 15.000/kg, onion about Rp 30.000/kg, garlic about Rp 18.000/kg, egg about Rp 24.000/kg, sugar about Rp 11.500/kg, and cooking oil about Rp 12.500/liter.

To optimize the services to the people, PMT East Kalimantan is in cooperation with gojek (online drivers).

Agung did appreciate the service of PMT and hoped that the people get the better access by the cooperation.

“I do hope, it could be socialized again and again to the people so that they know where to get food within economic price just by using online application,” he said. (A2)