Jakarta – The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has set a target to increase its commercial business revenue by carrying out initiatives, including rice distribution partnerships and the launch of an online foodstuff marketplace.
"Approximately 80 percent of Bulog's revenue is still obtained from the government's assignments [program], while the rest comes from commercial sales. In the future, we want at least 50 percent of our total income to be earned from commercial activities," said Bulog president director Budi Waseso in Jakarta on Tuesday.
State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir has instructed state companies to not only carry out their public service obligations (PSO) but also work hard to become profitable enterprises.
Bulog had loans worth Rp 28 trillion (US$1.9 billion) as of September from procurements of various commodities, including rice, Antara news agency reported. "We know we have debts and PangananDotCom is a part of the solution to pay them off," said Budi.
Bulog on Tuesday launched its online marketplace, PangananDotCom, in partnership with e-commerce firm Shopee Indonesia and logistics company JNE, among other companies. Budi expressed hope that the newly launched marketplace would be Indonesia's biggest online foodstuff supermall.
The marketplace currently sells mostly premium and specialty rice. Bulog planned to sell 50 new rice products on PangananDotCom, with qualities ranging from medium to premium and categories ranging from white rice, red rice, black and organic rice.
"For the commercial segment, we also sell other food products. However, rice still dominates. The addition of 50 new rice types is our effort to show the public that we sell quality products," said Budi.
The online marketplace services will be available to consumers outside Jakarta, such as those in Bandung (West Java), Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta, Surabaya (East Java), Medan (North Sumatra) and Makassar (South Sulawesi), starting January or February next year.
At the same time, Bulog also announced its agreements with state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) to become the supplier of rice packages for both banks' employees.
Bulog will also supply around 600,000 sacks of rice for the Indonesian Military and approximately 300,000 for the National Police, Budi said. "We are also open [to opportunities] to supply private companies," he said. (bry)