Government agrees to increase HET Minyakita, Trade Minister Budi: CPO prices are expensive

Minyakita (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The government has agreed to raise the highest retail price (HET) of people's cooking oil, Minyakita. The reason is that the price of crude palm oil (CPO) is currently more expensive than the assumption when the Minyakita HET was set.

Trade Minister Budi Santoso said that the current market conditions are very different. He said that producers are having difficulty selling Minyakita at a HET of Rp15,700 per liter, because CPO prices have risen.

"The first thing is the price. It is impossible that the CPO price was Rp12,400 when the HET was Rp15,700, now it is Rp15,500 (per kg). Yes, it is impossible for him to sell Rp15,700," he said at the Ministry of Trade Office, Jakarta, Thursday, June 4.

Therefore, continued Budi, the cost structure of the production and distribution of MinyaKita is no longer in accordance with the initial calculation when the HET was set.

"To buy now, the manufacturer to D1 (distributor) is Rp. 13,500, right? If the CPO is Rp. 15,400, it's impossible. That is, the nombok is like that. So, we calculate the economic price," he said.

In addition, said Budi, packaging costs have also increased in price. Therefore, the government is recalculating the economic price of Minyakita so that the distribution chain from manufacturers to retailers continues to run without burdening business actors.

Even so, Budi continued, the government has not determined the amount of the HET increase. The reason is that CPO and fresh fruit bunches (FFB) prices are still fluctuating, so it takes time to see a more stable market direction.

"And yesterday the price of TBS also fell but now it has started to rise again. So we will see the price is stable, then only determine how much the increase in HET Minyakita," he said.

Although it has not set a certain figure, Budi admitted that it is not closed to the possibility that in the near future the decision on the amount of HET Minyakita will be announced immediately.

"So we agreed like that, maybe in one or two weeks, we will immediately make adjustments if the price is relatively normal, yes, CPO prices," he said.