Palembang City Government Hands Over Handling Of Supermarkets Hoarding Cooking Oil To The Food Task Force

PALEMBANG - The City Government (Pemkot) of Palembang, South Sumatra has confirmed that it will hand over supermarkets stockpiling cooking oil to the regional food task force (Satgas) for processing according to existing regulations.

Deputy Mayor of Palembang, Fitrianti Agustinda, said that based on the inspection carried out together with the City Trade Office at several supermarkets, they found one that was allegedly stockpiling cooking oil.

“Of the three supermarkets/supermarkets that we visited, we found one that was allegedly stockpiling cooking oil in the warehouse, because the cooking oil rack was empty. We leave it to the food task force for later processing," Fitrianti said as quoted by Antara, Thursday, March 17.

According to Fitri, the supermarket manager reasoned that he was stockpiling oil to regulate the rhythm of sales.

However, he said, the City Government must affirm the supermarket management so that the community's need for cooking oil is still fulfilled.

“Although the intention is to regulate the rhythm of sales, it must comply with the rules, there should be no hoarding. In general, cooking oil stocks, especially supermarkets in Palembang, are still available, although relatively," he said.

Meanwhile, Ari Febriansyah, the head of supermarket management at Palembang Square Mall, said that his party deliberately did not remove the cooking oil stock from the storage warehouse.

Ari reasoned that this was done to avoid crowds of consumers to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

"If the cooking oil is released (with a limited amount) it will become a bone of contention and can be dangerous for consumer safety considering that the current COVID-19 pandemic is still in," he said.