INDONESIA: Government to purchase 10,000 tons of rubber from farmers
Indonesia's Public Works and Public Housing Ministry plans to purchase 10,000 tons of rubber from farmers for use in rubberized asphalt amid the coronavirus pandemic impacting absorption of the rubber commodity by the market.
"The purchase of this rubberized asphalt is part of the ministry's mitigation efforts to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono noted in a press statement that Antara News Agency received Tuesday (5 May 2020). The farmers' rubber commodity will be purchased by the ministry's National Road Management Agency in several cities, including Medan, Palembang, Padang, Lampung, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, and Balikpapan, he remarked.
The National Road Management Agency in the cities will buy the rubber from members of the Processing and Marketing of Processed Rubber Material Group of Farmers, he stated. The ministry has frequently used rubberized asphalt for paving roads in various areas, including certain road sections of Ciawi-Sukabumi, Ajibarang-Banyumas-Klampok-Banjarnegara, and Muara Beliti-Musi Rawas-Tebing Tinggi-Lahat. Hadimuljono revealed that the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry had allocated a budget of IDR 100 billion to purchase the 10,000 tons of rubber for rubberized asphalt.
Source: Antara News Agency, Jakarta; 5 May 2020
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)