Baturaja Disabled Traders Complain Plastic Prices Soaring

One of the plastic stores in the Upper Baturaja Market sells various types of plastic, Wednesday. ANTARA/Edo Purmana

OKU - Plastic prices in the city of Baturaja, Ogan Komering Ulu Regency (OKU), South Sumatra, have experienced a significant spike. Prices have even doubled.

According to Reni, the owner of a plastic shop in the Upper Baturaja Market, the price of plastic, especially plastic bags, has increased.

"It has increased drastically in recent weeks. Usually, plastic per one ball is Rp. 38,000. Now it can be up to Rp. 65,000/ball," said Reni, Wednesday, April 15, quoted from Antara.

In addition to the high price, he said, the availability of goods from supplier agents is currently also a problem. "Buyers are still there, but the goods are often empty," he said.

A similar complaint was made by Yanto, a young coconut ice seller in the Baturaja City Park area, who admitted that the price increase occurred in almost all types of plastic that he used for selling.

He detailed, the price of PE plastic (Polyethylene) size 15x30 increased from Rp. 15,000 to Rp. 23,000/bal, while the straw rose from Rp. 8,000 to Rp. 10,000/pack.

In fact, the plastic packaging of the tomato brand jumped from Rp36,000 to Rp65,000/bal.

"That's the price at the plastic store, if it's retail it must be more expensive," he said.

Head of Trade Development of Disperindag OKU, Irfan Maradona separately admitted that his party had not monitored the price of plastic in the local market, including the impact of the price increase.

"We are only monitoring the prices and stocks of basic commodities at the people's market level. For plastic prices, they have not been monitored," said Irpan.