Govt Vows Local Placement for Village Cooperative Managers - Tempo.co English
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan stated that the government will adjust the placement of prospective managers of the Red and White Village Cooperatives based on their domicile.
"The important thing is that they accept the current location so their status does not lapse. It will later be adjusted to the nearest location," said Zulkifli in Jakarta on Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
Zulhas, as he is popularly known, explained that the government's current priority is deploying qualified managerial candidates. Consequently, these prospective managers are set to officially begin work on Thursday, October 1, 2026.
The candidate managers will receive monthly salaries ranging from Rp6.3 million to Rp8.3 million, tailored to regional minimum wage standards. They will be employed under a two-year fixed-term contract (PKWT) with state enterprise PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) politician explained that assigning managers far from their hometowns stems from an imbalance between completed physical branches and available personnel. Zulhas noted that the current pool of 30,000 candidate managers remains out of proportion with the existing count of cooperative units.
As a result, Zulhas stated that the government is prioritizing candidate deployments to high-priority locations. This constraint has led to many candidate managers being assigned far from their places of residence. "Later, once cooperatives are established closer to their home base, they will be reassigned," he said.
Meanwhile, data from the Red and White Village Cooperatives Management Information System showed that 26,669 physical branch buildings had been completed as of September 29, 2026.
Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono estimated that around 1,900 candidates, or roughly 11 percent of the total, have been posted across provincial borders.
"Yesterday, we, together with PT Agrinas, agreed to maintain their status and will not disqualify them while waiting for the construction of the Red and White Village Cooperatives to be completed. We will definitely find a solution," Ferry said.
On the same occasion, Ferry acknowledged that several candidates had opted to resign after being posted outside their home provinces. "Not many," the Gerindra Party politician remarked.
