Jakarta. Indonesia aims to complete the construction of 35,872 Red-and-White Village Cooperatives by August before shifting its focus to staffing and operations, Chief Food Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Friday.

The cooperatives are part of President Prabowo Subianto's flagship program to establish 80,000 village cooperatives nationwide. Each cooperative will receive Rp 3 billion (about $167,000) in government support for facilities and initial working capital, with Rp 83 trillion allocated to the initiative this year.

"Nearly 35,872 cooperatives have been completed. God willing, they will all be finished by August. We will complete the construction this year, then appoint personnel so the cooperatives can operate properly. Next year we will continue with the next phase," Zulkifli told reporters after a coordination meeting in Central Jakarta.

He said the government is not only completing the physical development of the cooperatives but is also preparing their operational framework.

According to Zulkifli, the Red-and-White Village Cooperatives are designed to serve as government service hubs rather than simply village retail stores.

The cooperatives will distribute social assistance, subsidized goods and support government market intervention programs aimed at stabilizing prices.

"If the government conducts a market operation, every village will have a cooperative that can carry it out," he said.

The cooperatives will also function as off-takers for agricultural products to help protect farmers from falling commodity prices.

For example, if the market price of unhusked rice drops below the government's purchasing price of Rp 6,500 per kilogram, the cooperatives will purchase farmers' harvests to ensure they receive the minimum guaranteed price.

"If the government's purchase price is Rp 6,500 per kilogram but the market only offers Rp 5,000, then the Red-and-White Village Cooperative will buy the grain as the off-taker," Zulkifli said.

The government is finalizing a presidential regulation that will establish the mechanism for distributing subsidies and government assistance through the cooperatives.

The drafting process will be led by Tatang, Deputy for Food Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs, with the Ministry of Cooperatives and the Ministry of Villages taking the initiative. The regulation is expected to be completed within one month.

The government will also begin verifying and validating completed cooperatives before construction payments are disbursed through state-owned food holding company Agrinas Pangan to the Association of State-Owned Banks (Himbara).

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