Questioning The Scarcity Of Cooking Oil, Confusing Government Interventions To Alleged Distributor Games

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Cooking oil is still scarce in the market. In fact, based on data from the Ministry of Trade, crude palm oil (CPO) producers have committed to meeting domestic needs, even reaching 351 million liters.

This figure is even far from the need per month which is around 300 million liters. Thus, it is not impossible to make the domestic market flooded with cooking oil products.

Then, what causes cooking oil is still scarce?

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said the scarcity of cooking oil in the market was due to government intervention which was confusing. For example, for a subsidy of IDR 14,000 per liter and the highest retail price (HET).

The Ministry of Trade has set the highest retail price (HET) for cooking oil starting February 1, 2022, namely the price of bulk cooking oil at IDR 11,500 per liter, the price for simple packaged cooking oil at IDR 13,500 per liter, and the price for premium packaged cooking oil at IDR 14,000 per liter. .

"Now it's finally rare everywhere. Because if a trader sells old stock at a subsidized price, then he loses, while he has to be in the window. Then he sells it above HET, afraid that he will be inspected by the food task force, he will be penalized for selling above HET," he said when contacted by VOI, Monday, March 7.

In addition, said Bhima, the cause of the scarcity of cooking oil is because the government does not control the distribution chain. Currently, the distribution of cooking oil is not carried out by Bulog or state-owned enterprises (BUMN).

For your information, the distribution of cooking oil can involve 3 to 7 actors in trading activities. The main distribution pattern for the national cooking oil trade is producers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, supermarkets, and end consumers.

"Bulog does not play in cooking oil. So the distribution chain is not controlled by BUMN or the government. From 3 to 7 distribution chains, from cooking oil producers to consumers, the distributors are not from the government," he said.

Therefore, said Bhima, to overcome the scarcity of cooking oil in the short term is to fix the problem of the trade system. Thus, it can overcome distribution barriers.

"For example, cooking oil reaches 7 players to the consumer level. So where is the point of the problem. If there are distributors who play, who is playing. So there must be law enforcement in the trade system, so make sure," he said.

"If the claim that the supply is safe, but it doesn't reach the grassroots, it means that there are distributors playing. This must be done by law enforcement," explained Bhima.

Lack of cooking oil supply at retail level

The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) said that the constraints in the lack of domestic cooking oil supply occurred in the field or at the level of product distribution to retail.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade, IG Ketut Astawa, said that crude palm oil or CPO producers had complied with the domestic market obligation (DMO) policy by supplying 350 million liters of domestic cooking oil.

Meanwhile, the national demand per month ranges from 279 million liters to 300 million liters. With CPO troops filled with producers, the domestic market should be flooded with cooking oil products within a month.

However, what happened was the opposite. The availability of cooking oil is still small or scarce in the market, both modern and traditional markets. Ketut admitted that there were indeed findings by the Food Task Force that there were individuals who deliberately hoard cooking oil and did not distribute it to the market.

In addition, Ketut also revealed that there are still people who buy cooking oil in larger quantities than their usual needs, causing the availability of products to be running low on the market.