/data/photo/2022/02/17/620de9bdd3a32.jpg "The Minister of Trade: Actually the Stock of Cooking Oil is No Problem Page all")
KOMPAS.com – Minister of Trade (Trade Minister) Muhammad Lutfi said the need cooking oil in Indonesia, it was around 280 million liters in February 2022, but only almost a third or around 63 million liters have been fulfilled.
“Actually, there is no problem with cooking oil stocks, what happened was the price adjustment two weeks ago,” Lutfi said, quoted from Between, Friday (18/2/2022).
He said the price adjustment, which was closely related to the distribution of goods, was the reason why he went to Makassar City to check the distribution of people’s consumption needs.
According to him, for goods, especially cooking oil in Makassar, the supply is there, but in the form of bulk oil at a price of Rp 11,500 per liter according to government regulations.
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Regarding the difficulty of finding premium packaged cooking oil in the field, Lutfi said that in the next two weeks the distribution of cooking oil will return to normal.
As is known, the polemic of expensive oil prices has not been resolved until now. The high cost of vegetable oil is an irony in Indonesia, considering that this country is the largest palm oil producer in the world.
The government’s cheap oil program has actually created a new problem, namely scarcity. In fact, the subsidies issued by the government are not small, reaching Rp. 3.6 trillion.
In various areas, people actually complain about the difficulty of getting these commodities. In modern retail, for example, the shelves which are usually the display case for cooking oil products, often look empty.
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For the same amount of money, traditional market traders and food stalls also admit that they do not sell cheap cooking oil according to the government’s program. Even if there is a stock of cooking oil, it is still priced at an expensive price.
Quoted from National Strategic Food Price Information Center (PIHPN), The high cost of cooking oil to penetrate above Rp. 20,000 per liter does not happen in a short time.
Judging from the price movement at PIHPS, producers have actually increased cooking oil in stages since the end of October 2021.
In September 2021, the price of cooking oil will still be in the range of Rp. 14,000 to Rp. 15,000 per liter. Only at the end of October 2021, prices began to rise in the range of Rp. 16,000 per liter.
Also read: Rare Cooking Oil, This is What Retail Entrepreneurs Request to the Government
A month later or at the end of November, the price of cooking oil was at the level of Rp. 17,000 per liter, and until the end of the year or December 31, 2021, the price of cooking oil was Rp. 18,000 to Rp. 19,000 per liter.
The trend of gradual increases in cooking oil prices by producers will continue until 2022. In some areas, cooking oil prices have even penetrated Rp 25,000 per liter, as happened in Gorontalo, a province which is actually also a center for oil palm plantations.
PIHPS itself is an official website managed by Bank Indonesia (BI) that provides real time reference for food prices, especially basic necessities, from various markets in various regions of Indonesia.
The source of data on this site is a direct survey of 82 sample cities/districts of CPI inflation. The data in the National PIHPS includes price data on traditional markets for 10 food commodities with 21 variants that are quite dominant for public consumption and are commodities that are a source of food inflation.
Also read: Market Traders Still Complain about the Lack of Cooking Oil Stocks
Criticism of Faisal Basri
Quoted from Happy, Senior economist, Faisal Basri, said that the current chaos of cooking oil that caused the scarcity of its availability was due to policies made by the government itself.
Due to inappropriate policies, the absorption of CPO, which was previously dominated by the food industry, including cooking oil, has now shifted to the biodiesel industry. This is because of the B20 policy.
CPO producers are considered to prefer selling their CPO to biodiesel companies rather than cooking oil companies, because the selling price of CPO to the domestic biodiesel market is higher than selling to cooking oil companies.
Residents carry cooking oil purchased during the operation of the cooking oil market at the Bakorwil Madiun pendapa yard, East Java, Tuesday (15/2/2022). The operation of the Cheap Cooking Oil Market with the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa provides around three thousand liters of packaged cooking oil which is sold at a price of Rp 12,500 per liter and each ID card holder gets two liters.-
“Selling CPO to cooking oil companies is priced at domestic prices but if you sell it to biodiesel companies you get international prices. Automatically choose (sell to) biodiesel, and who made it like that? Yes, the government. the government for lulling the biodiesel factory,” said Faisal Basri, quoted from Kontan.co.id.
Also read: Rare Cooking Oil, Market Traders Association Denies Hoarding
Faisal explained that the government should be able to do everything possible to overcome the spike in CPO prices, for example with a cooking oil stabilization fund.
But unfortunately the government did not do this. In contrast to the biodiesel industry, which receives subsidies from the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS).
“I don’t want Rp 20 trillion to stabilize cooking oil prices, why do biodiesel companies get hundreds of trillions from 2015 to 2021. The Rp 7 trillion oil subsidy fund is not continued. It’s stingy to the people,” said Faisal.
According to Faisal Basri, the composition of domestic CPO users in the food industry in 2019 was 58.9 percent, decreasing from year to year until 2021 to 48.4 percent.
Also read: Cooking Oil Producers Say They Are Confused by Government Regulations
The decline in the use of CPO for the food industry is estimated to continue in 2022. Faisal Basri estimates the decline to be 46.6 percent.
In contrast to the composition of CPO users in the biodiesel industry, which in 2019 was only 34.5 percent, then it rose from year to year until 2021 to 40.1 percent. Then this year it is estimated that it will increase to 42.9 percent. Likewise in the oleochemical industry, which continues to increase from 2019 only 6.6 percent to 11.5 percent in 2021.
Furthermore, Faisal explained, the allocation of BPDPKS funds was very unequal. Where the allocation of BPDPKS funds from July 2015 to December 2021 for biofuel subsidies reached Rp 110 trillion or 79.04 percent. Then for the rejuvenation of people’s palm oil only 6.6 tons or 4.73 percent.
“This is the government, there is no siding with the people. This 34 percent of the people’s funds comes from the sweat of the people. There are 22 palm oil entrepreneurs who enjoy biodiesel subsidies,” he said.
Also read: Producers Explain Causes of Scarcity of Cooking Oil in Palm Rich Countries
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