Indonesian Vegetable Oil Industry Association (Hymn) claim bulk cooking oil only sold in three countries, in particular poor country.
GIMNI Executive Director Sahat Sinaga also questioned the government’s attitude that it still allowed the sale of bulk cooking oil in Indonesia. The reason is, the impact of bulk cooking oil is very dangerous.
“Bulk cooking oil is only available in three countries. Those poor countries. Indonesia was a poor country,” said Sahat to reporters, Tuesday (19/4).
Sahat did not specify two other countries that still sell bulk oil. However, he questioned how can Indonesia be included in the G20 group if it still sells bulk cooking oil as it is now.
“I have presented my research, what will happen if cooking oil is used, I thought, is it worthy for Indonesia to enter the G20? What are the criteria?” clear Sahat.
Therefore, he thinks that the government is incompetent in solving the cooking oil problem in Indonesia.
Sahat explained that the government had made a policy to prohibit the sale of bulk cooking oil from 2022. The regulation was issued on May 30, 2020.
However, the policy will be on December 27, 2021. The government announced that traders can still sell bulk cooking oil.
Meanwhile, 12 companies that have bulk cooking oil divisions and are ready to switch to packaged cooking oil are also in a state of confusion.
“Indeed, the factory is a peanut or cigarette factory? Frankly, I say that the government does not understand,” said Sahat.
He said the government should not panic to solve the cooking oil problem. This is because the total demand for cooking oil is only 3.7 million tons in the country.
“The 3.7 million tons of cooking oil needed is only 4.8 million tons of palm oil, that’s only 10 percent of the national production, so why panic?” said Sahat.
Previously, the government made various policies to overcome the spike in cooking oil prices that occurred since the end of 2021. The price of cooking oil has penetrated more than Rp. 20,000 per liter since the end of last year until now.
To respond to this, the government had set the Highest Retail Price (HET) for simple packaged cooking oil at Rp. 13,500 per liter, premium packaging at Rp. 14 thousand per liter, and bulk at Rp. 11,500 per liter.
After that, the stock of cooking oil was immediately scarce in the market. Several companies proved reluctant to release to the market because the HET determined by the government was much lower than the economic one.
Shortly thereafter, the government abolished the HET policy for simple and premium packaged cooking oil. Thus, packaged cooking oil is sold with a market mechanism.
In exchange, the government provides subsidies for the sale of bulk cooking oil. However, the HET for bulk cooking oil increased from Rp11,500 to Rp14 thousand per liter.
However, it also does not solve the problem of cooking oil in the market. This is because some traders still sell bulk cooking oil for more than Rp. 20,000 per liter.
(one/aud)
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