Anastasya Lavenia Yudi, Jakarta – Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, stated that volatile food inflation in September 2025 was influenced by the accelerated rollout of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program.
According to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), volatile food inflation reached 6.44 percent year-on-year in September. Zulkifli, commonly known as Zulhas, explained that certain commodities experienced price increases in some regions, while others saw declines.
"Recently, the acceleration of the nutritious meal program has been extraordinary, which led to price increases of 6–7 percent for items like eggs and chicken," he told reporters after the 100 Economists Forum at Bank Mega Tower in Jakarta on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
The PAN party chairman noted that the year-end acceleration of the MBG program significantly affected food prices. To curb inflation, he emphasized the importance of accelerating food self-sufficiency initiatives.
BPS reported that in the first week of October 2025, the price of chicken eggs jumped 1.19 percent compared to September. BPS Head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said that the highest price reached Rp100,000 per kilogram, while the government's reference price, known as HAP, is set at Rp30,000 per kilogram.
Nationally, the average price of chicken eggs in the first week of October exceeded the HAP.
"Chicken eggs are now above the HAP, averaging Rp 31,178 per kilogram. The number of districts and cities experiencing rising egg prices continues to grow," Amalia said during a regional inflation control coordination meeting, streamed online via the Ministry of Home Affairs' YouTube channel on Monday, October 6, 2025.
Meanwhile, BPS reported that monthly inflation in September 2025 reached 0.21 percent, while annual inflation stood at 2.65 percent.
The highest year-on-year provincial inflation occurred in North Sumatra at 5.32 percent, while Papua recorded the lowest at 0.99 percent. Maluku Utara experienced a deflation of 0.17 percent.