Stockpile Management, Ensuring Self-Sufficiency, and the Distribution of Price Subsidies
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Malaysia Agriculture Report 2019 Table of Contents Profile and Acknowledgement 4 Introduction 5 The Evaluation of BERNAS in Achieving Food Security 9 Fatimah Mohamed Arshad and Yeong Sheng Tey Copyright © 2019 by IDEAS and CIPS. All rights reserved. Introduction 9 First published in November 2019 Evolution of BERNAS as an STE 11 Business Transformation of BERNAS 20 Socioeconomic Roles of BERNAS 25 Published by: Unintented Consequences 37 Conclusions and Policy Recommendations 41 IDEAS Policy Research Berhad (IDEAS) The Lower Penthouse Food Policy at the Crossroads: Wither Roles of BULOG? 45 Wisma Hang Sam, 1, Jalan Hang Lekir 50000 Kuala Lumpur Bustanul Arifin Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) Introduction 45 Jalan Terogong Raya No. 6B Food Price Stability 46 Cilandak, Jakarta Selatan 12430, Indonesia Changes from Rastra to Non-Cash Food Assistance 53 Concluding Remarks: Food Policy Options for the Future 56 www.ideas.org.my Conclusion and Policy Recommendations 59 Reg №: 1219187-V References 61 Appendix 75 Any part of this publication may be quoted, copied, or translated by indicating the source. No part of this publication may be stored for commercial purposes without prior written permision. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent IDEAS and CIPS. Design and layout: Norhayati Murni Misran Cover and photos are downloaded from: www.freepik.com 2 Effectiveness of State Trading Enterprises in Achieving Food Security: Case Studies from BERNAS in Malaysia and BULOG in Indonesia www.ideas.org.my 3 Malaysia Agriculture Report 2019 PROFILE INTRODUCTION Fatimah Mohamed Arshad is a research fellow at the Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia specializing in agricultural marketing and policy analyses. She is currently a member of the country’s National Agriculture Advisory Council, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry. She has served in a number of national committees and council such as the National Cooperative Consultative Council, under the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Consumerism and Cooperative, Malaysia (2010 – 2018), National Advisory Council of Agricultural Development in Malaysia (2010-2013), and a member of the Palm Oil Advisory Council (PAC/MPOB) (2010-2014). Her research areas include; agricultural policy analyses and modelling commodity industry studies, food security, agricultural market structure, conduct and performance, supply chain and cooperatives. She believes that the role of the smallholders in agriculture can be further enhanced through knowledge empowerment and treading the path of collaborative commons particularly cooperatives for sustainability, equity and growth. Bustanul Arifin is Professor of Agricultural Economics in the University of Lampung (UNILA) and Professorial Fellow at the International Center for Applied Finance and Economics of Bogor Agricultural University (InterCAFE-IPB). Dr. Arifin has over 25 The issue of food security is of vital concern to many developing countries and various kinds of policy years’ experience on comprehensive range of research in agricultural and resource instruments have been employed to achieve stable food sources for growing demands. One of the most economics, food security, political economy and development strategies. He has a predominant policy instruments in both the developed and developing world involves centralised state wide range of consultancy experience in the fields of economics and development trading through what are called State Trading Enterprises (STEs). State trading is more prevalent in the issues for international agencies such as: World Bank, USAID, JBIC, UNDP, ILO, GTZ, ICRAF, WWF, Danida, agriculture industry as countries utilise these entities as a means to achieve agricultural policy objectives such RECOFTC, etc. Dr. Arifin has published 39 titles of books in economics and development issues, including as stabilising domestic prices, eliminating marketing inefficiencies and ensuring the availability of food supplies a sole author of 14 books. He has also authored over 80 articles in scientific journals, written and (WTO, 1995). STEs are therefore often an integral aspect of a policy package implemented to address presented over 100 research papers in international conferences. the challenges in achieving the food security objectives of a country. However, although these entities are recognised as an instrument for addressing market challenges, STEs have also been criticised for their Yeong Sheng Tey is a senior researcher at the Institute of Agricultural and Food distortion of trade and markets through the monopolistic power and government support. Therefore, it is Policy Studies of Universiti Putra Malaysia. His consultancy work involved value chain necessary to assess the effectiveness of STEs at achieving the objective of food security, as well as consider and market development for private firms (e.g., Khazanah and Petronas), public the potential market distortions that arise with STEs and the common policies associated with them. agencies (e.g., the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities and Economic Planning Unit), international bodies (e.g., the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture This report brings together insights from two STEs in Southeast Asia, namely BERNAS in Malaysia and BULOG Organization of the United Nations), and certification entities (e.g., the Roundtable in Indonesia. Each study offers a historical perspective to the financial, economic and social contributions of on Sustainable Palm Oil). He has recently been appointed as an independent director of Simple Farm the STEs, their effectiveness in achieving the domestic food security agenda and several policy suggestions Sdn Bhd, which is the largest fully integrated banana company in Malaysia. Leveraged on his investing and to mitigate the issues within each country. This report will be broken down as follows: business experience, his present academic research includes studying competitiveness of oil palm growers with respect to standard adoption. He also pursues interests infusing innovative institutions, policies and • The first part of this report introduces the case studies by looking into state trading enterprises, food strategies for agro-enterprise development. As Sir John Templeton put it, “it is impossible to produce security and the contextual backgrounds of Malaysia and Indonesia’s agricultural policies; superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” • The second portion will present the country case studies that are designed to analyse how state ACKNOWLEDGEMENT trading enterprises and their associated food-related policies have affected the agriculture and food trade sectors in Malaysia and Indonesia; The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) would like to acknowledge the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies for their cooperation in the Indonesian case study “Food Policy at the • Finally, the report will conclude with a summary of the country case study findings and the implications Crossroads: Wither Roles of BULOG?. for agriculture and food trade policies in other developing countries. 4 Effectiveness of State Trading Enterprises in Achieving Food Security: Case Studies from BERNAS in Malaysia and BULOG in Indonesia www.ideas.org.my 5 Malaysia Agriculture Report 2019 STEs and Food Security However, it has become clear that many STEs around the world have multidimensional aspects that make them a combination of more than one of these STE classifications. For example, BERNAS in Malaysia has been mandated with the responsibilities to stabilise consumer and producer prices, decide on rice The issue of state trading has been in existence for as long as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade trade volumes, act as a canalising agency, and at the same time serve as a profit-maximising private entity. (GATT). State trading enterprises are legal entities and their activities have been defined principally in Article Recognising that these classifications are often neither non-exclusive nor exhaustive, some have stressed XVII of GATT 1947 and repeated again in GATT 1994. Prior to GATT 1994, several definitions of state that the definition of an STE should focus on the relationship between state and enterprise rather than the trading were proposed and revolved around government conduct and monopolisation of trade, through an structure and function of the enterprise itself. It is not ownership per se that matters, but the nature of the entity either wholly or partially owned (Hazard, 1959; Baldwin, 1970; Ghai, 1973). However, no consensus exclusive rights or special privileges that are bestowed on organisations that are of crucial significance behind had been reached on the definitions up until 1994, when a formal definition was provided within “The the GATT 1994 definition (McCorriston & MacLaren, 2004). These exclusive rights are often bestowed in Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XVII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994”, order for governments to operationalise their policy objectives, such as food security obligations in the which defines a state trading enterprise as: agriculture sector. “Governmental and non-governmental enterprises, including marketing boards, which have been granted Food security is related to how a society can control food accessibility, availability, utilization and stability (FAO, exclusive or special rights or privileges, including