Why is IDR 14,000 Cooking Oil Rare? Ministry of Trade and Manufacturers: “Panic Buying”! page all

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Until now, people are still complaining about scarcity cooking oil one price which is priced at Rp. 14,000 per liter in the market.

Many mothers claim that they have not yet received the cheap cooking oil that is sold in modern retail, even though the one-price cooking oil program has been going on since a week ago.

The Director General of Consumer Protection and Trade Order (PKTN) of the Ministry of Trade, Veri Anggrijono, said the scarcity cooking oil IDR 14,000 per liter on the market because of panic buying from society.

Also read: YLKI Calls Determination of New HET for Cooking Oil an Anti-Competitive Policy

“Right now, people are still panic buying. Just take a look, even though the purchase is limited to 2 pouch per person, but there are other families who are told to buy even though they are still one family, so one family can buy up to 10 liters of cooking oil,” said Veri when contacted Kompas.com, Friday (28/1/2022).

According to him, this is the reason why no matter how much retailers sell cooking oil in their stores, they will run out.

Veri also said that in actual calculations, the cooking oil producers had enough in producing and distributing cooking oil. It’s just that according to him, because of panic buying Thus, the stock of cooking oil still feels low.

“For example, producers have planned to produce 1,000 liters of cooking oil for 1 month, then because of the panic, people bought what they thought would be enough but they didn’t. So it feels like the stock is decreasing, but it’s not,” explained Veri.

Therefore, he said, his party, in this case the Ministry of Trade, has ordered the cooking oil producers to continue to boost their production. “Our Director General of Domestic Trade (DJPN), Mr. Okay, has called them (producers) so that their production will continue to be boosted,” said Veri.

Meanwhile, the President Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia Master Parulian Tumanggor said that his party, which was appointed as one of the producers of cooking oil for the one-price cooking oil program, admitted that he had carried out the instructions requested by the government.

In fact, his party has produced the amount of cooking oil for the program exceeding the government’s request.

Also read: No Subsidy for Bulk Cooking Oil, Sri Mulyani: It Doesn’t Mean to Side with Manufacturers…

“I can’t” give the data must be checked one by one but for sure Wilmar produces cooking oil for the above program from the requested amount. Just check in the field, the stock is there,” said Master Parulian.

Master also considered that the reason for the lack of cooking oil in retail was because there were still many consumers who panic buying.

“They think this program will be short so they buy a lot of goods (oil) directly for the old stock. So they feel the stock is minimal, but that’s not the case,” said Master.

“The logic is like this, for example, the initial requirement was 2 million tons, but because most of those who previously only bought a kilo became 3 kilograms per family for fear of a shortage of cooking oil, the need automatically increases, right. That’s what makes it feel like the stock is minimal,” he continued.

Also read: YLKI Calls Cooking Oil Expensive in Indonesia Like Dead Chicken in a Rice Barn

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