Jakarta, Feb. 27 -- Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan has urged Red and White Village Cooperatives to actively purchase locally produced food commodities when prices fall to protect community incomes and maintain food supply stability.

"The Red and White Village Cooperatives must serve as distribution hubs. If rice is not being purchased, the cooperative steps in. If fish or eggs are not selling, the cooperative buys them," he said in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.

During a direct inspection of the Endang Rejo Red and White Village Cooperative in Central Lampung District, Lampung Province, on Thursday, February 26, he stressed that village cooperatives should not only sell basic goods.

He said the cooperatives must act a...