JAKARTA - The price of cooking oil in the domestic market has the potential to continue to creep up. One of the triggers comes from the surge in plastic packaging costs at the upstream level.
The Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, Esther Sri Astuti, revealed that the increase in plastic packaging prices is inseparable from global geopolitical pressure and distribution chain disruptions.
"The increase in the price of cooking oil is difficult to avoid because the cost of plastic packaging has also jumped," he said in Jakarta, Monday (27/4/2026).
According to him, this condition will force industry players to look for more efficient packaging alternatives to reduce production costs.
However, Esther reminded that the impact could not be taken lightly. The increase in the price of cooking oil is at risk of triggering inflation and suppressing people's purchasing power, especially since this commodity is a basic need.
"This can increase household living costs and burden culinary MSMEs," he explained.
Similarly, the Executive Director of the Center of Reform on Economics, Mohammad Faisal, assessed that the government needed to tighten supervision of the supply chain of cooking oil which is currently controlled by private actors.
Apart from the packaging factor, he highlighted distribution as a source of price pressure.
"This distribution channel is not entirely under the control of the government, so supervision must be strengthened," he said.
On the other hand, Faisal assessed that the government's decision to hold off on raising subsidized fuel prices was an important cushion for people's purchasing power, amid a surge in global oil prices due to geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East.
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