1 Million Jakarta Residents Beneficiary Of Cheap Food Program Not Affected By Egg Price Fluctuations

Photo: Doc. Food Station Tjipinang Jaya

JAKARTA - In recent times, the public has been made to scream by the soaring price of chicken eggs which exploded in a number of areas in West Java and DKI Jakarta. The reason is that in traditional markets, the price of chicken eggs is above Rp. 30 thousand per kilogram.

Abdullah Mansuri as General Chairperson of the Indonesian Market Traders Association said that the price of eggs is now the highest price since the last 5 years. Abdullah added that the price of eggs was initially around Rp. 27,000/kg, then increased to Rp. 29,000/kg. Then it goes up again from IDR 30,000 to IDR 32,000/kg.

"This is the highest price in the history of the last 5 years the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has worked," Abdullah said in his statement, Friday, August 26.

No doubt, the fluctuations in egg prices, according to the Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan, have now become the attention of President Joko Widodo.

"This increase in egg prices has been directly questioned by President Joko Widodo or Jokowi," said the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) when met after a meeting with Jokowi at the State Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday, August 24, 2022.

President Director of PT Food Station Tjipinang Jaya Pamrihadi Wiraryo separately is also concerned about the fluctuation in egg prices. According to him, the increase in the price of chicken eggs was caused by several factors, including distribution disturbances, the price increase also occurred due to the increase in animal feed for laying hens, because some components of the feed were obtained from soybean meal, where the price of imported soybeans rose quite high.

During the pandemic, farmers reduce the purchase of DOC (Day Old Chick), so that the population of laying hens that are raised is relatively not as much as normal conditions. In addition, the increase in egg prices was also triggered a week ago by the disbursement of the Ministry of Social Affairs program BPNT (Non-Cash Food Assistance) program, which included chicken egg products.

It seems because of that factor (the moment of disbursement of BPNT). A large supply of eggs purchased by the agent, so the supply of eggs is reduced. This is considered to be the dominant factor, why there is an increase in the price of chicken eggs.

Furthermore, to prevent repeated egg price fluctuations, any program prepared by the Ministry of Social Affairs should run consistently on schedule and not on-off which ultimately results in price volatility.

"This is important so that laying hens can make good planning, so prices tend to be stable," said Pamrihadi.

However, for the Jakarta area, especially for residents who are beneficiaries of the subsidized Cheap Food Program, they are greatly helped by the fluctuations in egg prices that are happening now. This is because they can buy 15 eggs in 1 tray at a price of Rp. 10,000 as stated in the list of food commodities in the Subsidized Cheap Food Program.

"Jakarta residents who are the beneficiaries of the subsidized cheap food program, amounting to at least 1 million people, are greatly helped. This can be proven by the uptake of eggs in the subsidized cheap food program by 20 percent when egg price fluctuations occur like now," explained Pamrihadi.

Furthermore, to prevent fluctuations in egg prices in the future, according to the direction of DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, Food Station will cooperate with IPB to cultivate corn.

Most of the results from corn cultivation will be allocated to laying hens in the production center areas that have collaborated with the Food Station. This effort was made to suppress the price fluctuation of corn which is feed for laying hens.