Bali's Merah Putih cooperatives record Rp3.34 billion in transactions through September

In brief: Village and neighbourhood cooperatives in Bali recorded 456,252 transactions valued at Rp3.34 billion between January and September 2026, according to figures attributed to the regional treasury office by ANTARA on 4 November. The total records reported trading activity. Cooperative profits and government funding would need to be assessed from different figures.

Rice accounts for the largest share of recorded trade

Five-kilogram packs of rice sold under Indonesia's Food Supply and Price Stabilisation programme (SPHP) accounted for approximately Rp1.95 billion of the total. Cooking oil contributed Rp426.65 million. Transactions involving NPK Phonska fertiliser and urea were valued at Rp230.17 million and Rp223.88 million respectively, while other goods made up Rp514.46 million.

These categories explain most of the value reported for the nine months ending 30 September. They also show how concentrated the programme's recorded activity is in basic food products and agricultural inputs. The figures do not establish whether individual outlets were profitable or whether shoppers paid less than they would have elsewhere.

The information was presented by Supendi, head of the Bali regional office of Indonesia's Directorate General of Treasury (DJPb), and reported by ANTARA on 4 November 2026.

Business identification numbers have been issued to 500 cooperatives

The report identifies 716 Merah Putih cooperatives across Bali. All were said to have accounts and taxpayer identification numbers; 500 had also obtained business identification numbers, known as NIBs.

These are registration milestones. They leave unanswered which shops currently serve customers and how regularly those shops operate. There is no outlet-by-outlet list in the reported transaction figures showing opening times, stock levels or product availability. A resident considering a smaller town or village therefore cannot assume a nearby cooperative will reliably supply rice, cooking oil or fertiliser simply because the organisation has been registered.

An earlier official release reports a higher figure

A Bali treasury press release published on 8 September, covering budget developments through 31 July 2026, stated that cooperative transactions had reached Rp3.48 billion. The precise cut-off date for that particular cooperative measure is not specified in the release. Its reported amount exceeds the Rp3.34 billion figure subsequently cited for January–September.

The discrepancy remains unresolved in the material available for this report. Different reporting scopes, revisions or accounting methods could explain it, but none has been established. It would be unsound to calculate a quarterly growth rate from these two totals. Nor does this programme-level transaction value provide evidence of rising property prices, rental yields or housing demand in Bali.