Ahead Of Ramadan, Petrokimia Gresik Provides Subsidized Fertilizer Twice The Government's Minimum Requirement

Ahead of Ramadan, Petrokimia Gresik, an Agroindustrial Solutions holding company member of the Pupuk Indonesia, has prepared subsidized fertilizer stocks of 294,466 tons as of March 10, 2023.This figure is 215 percent or more than double the Government's minimum requirement of 136,606 tons.

President Director of Petrokimia Gresik, Dwi Satriyo Annurogo said that coincidentally the beginning of the April-September planting season coincided with Ramadan fasting and Eid al-Fitr because farmers usually work on their land early. So the stock of subsidized fertilizers that is the responsibility of Petrokimia Gresik is sufficient for the needs of farmers for some time to come according to Government regulations.

"The stock consists of NPK and Urea fertilizers following the Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number 10 of 2022 which allocates subsidized fertilizers only for Urea and NPK. The details of NPK stocks are currently 258,739 tons, and Urea 35,727 tons. The fertilizer is currently in the line III warehouse," said Dwi Satriyo.

"Every week Petrokimia Gresik does provide subsidized fertilizers above the minimum requirements of the Government, including after Eid al-Fitr later. But at certain moments we prepare far above these provisions to anticipate the high needs of farmers," he added.

Subsidized fertilizer, continued Dwi Satriyo, is only distributed to eligible farmers according to the criteria of the Minister of Agriculture 10/2023. The requirements to get subsidized fertilizer are that they must be members of a farmer group, registered in the Agricultural Extension Management Information System (SIMLUHTAN), and work on a maximum of two lands hectares. The regulation also focuses subsidized fertilizers on only nine strategic commodities, namely rice, corn, soybeans, chili, onions, garlic, coffee, sugarcane, and cocoa.

Until early March, Petrokimia Gresik has distributed 635,447 tons of subsidized fertilizer. The details are NPK 478,520 tons for areas spread throughout Indonesia and Urea 156,927 tons. This figure is 82.6 percent of the subsidized fertilizer allocation mandated by Petrokimia Gresik during January-March 2023.

At the national level, Pupuk Indonesia has also distributed subsidized fertilizers of 1.42 million tons from January to March 8, 2023. This amount is equivalent to 79.6% of the allocation until March 2023 of 2.23 million tons.

Speaking about the mandate of distributing subsidized fertilizers, Dwi Satriyo explained that Petrokimia Gresik received the responsibility of distributing subsidized fertilizers

amounting to 3,123,354 tons or almost 4.0 percent of the total allocation of subsidized

fertilizers allocated by the Government. The details are Urea 713,292 tons and NPK 2,410,062 tons. Allocation The distribution of NPK subsidized fertilizers entrusted to Petrokimia Gresik is the most among other members of Pupuk Indonesia.

"Specifically, the total production target of NPK and Urea Petrokimia Gresik in 2023 is 3,635,800 tons, with details of Urea 975,800 tons and NPK 2,660,000. Of course, in its implementation, Petrokimia Gresik prioritizes the distribution of subsidized fertilizer to maintain national food security, and then the rest for commercial products, "said Dwi Satriyo.

For information, the total subsidized fertilizer allocation set by the government in 2023 is 7.85 million tons. Namely, Urea fertilizer is 4.64 million tons and NPK 3.21 million tons. Meanwhile, Pupuk Indonesia's production plan for 2023 is 12.3 million tons, of subsidized and non-subsidized fertilizers.

In addition, the overall production capacity of Pupuk Indonesia this year also received an additional 500 thousand tons through the NPK Pupuk Iskandar Muda Plant which was licensed by Petrokimia Gresik and inaugurated by the President of the Republic of Indonesia in February 2023.

"Petrokimia Gresik together with other members of the Pupuk Indonesia holding is ready to distribute subsidized fertilizers following regulations for national food security and farmers' welfare," said Dwi Satriyo.