Bogor Residents Screaming Cooking Oil Price Reached Rp38.000, Industry And Trade Department Appointments To Meet Bulog To Find Solutions

Head of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bogor City, Ganjar Gunawan. (ANTARA/Linna Susanti)

BOGOR - The Bogor City Government, West Java, will discuss a solution to increasing cooking oil prices with the Public Logistics Affairs Agency (Perum Bulog) to maintain people's purchasing power ahead of the national religious holidays (HBKN) Christmas and New Year 2022.

"We will meet with Bulog to discuss this," said Head of the Bogor City Industry and Trade Agency (Disperindag) Ganjar Gunawan when contacted by Antara, Thursday, November 11.

According to him, the Bogor City Government is still waiting for further conditions after the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has asked associations and palm cooking oil producers to continue producing bulk cooking oil and simple packaged cooking oil.

The distribution also cooperates with modern retail associations so that simple packaged cooking oil is easily accessible to all levels of society. "We will try our best," he said.

Meanwhile, a resident of Cimanggu, Kedungbadak Village, Tanah Sareal District, Bogor City, Isna, admitted that now the price of two liter bottled oil in minimarkets and traditional markets has reached Rp. 38,000 to Rp. 39,000. Usually around IDR 25,000 to IDR 29,000.

According to Isna, this increase has continued to be felt in the last two weeks, starting with an increase of Rp. 2,000 per liter from 15,000 to Rp. 17,000, now it is at Rp. 18,000 to Rp. 19,000, as well as in two-liter packages.

"So the price at minimarkets or supermarkets usually still depends on the promo, but the price is about that much, I like to look for food agents directly, I can get Rp. 33,000," said Isna.

Separately, a resident of Parungbanteng, Katulampa Village, East Bogor District, Nova admitted that he had bought one liter of cooking oil for Rp. 18,000. Those who need cooking oil for culinary business purposes find it difficult in the midst of an unstable economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The pandemic hasn't finished yet, my shop has been closed, now the price of oil is also high, the capital continues to increase," he said.

Previously, the Director General of Domestic Trade, Oke Nurwan, explained that the supply of cooking oil in the community was still safe. The national demand for cooking oil is 5.06 million tons per year, while the production can reach 8.02 million tons.

However, the increase in cooking oil prices was due to the sharp rise in international prices.

He said OK, although Indonesia is the largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO), conditions on the ground show that most cooking oil producers are not integrated with CPO producers.

With different business entities, of course, domestic cooking oil producers must buy CPO according to the domestic auction market price, namely the Dumai KPBN auction price which is also correlated with international market prices. As a result, if there is an increase in international CPO prices, domestic CPO prices will also adjust to international prices.

In addition, from within the country, the increase in cooking oil prices was also triggered by the decline in palm oil harvests in the second semester, so that the supply of CPO became limited and caused disruption to the supply chain of the cooking oil industry.

In addition, there is an increase in demand for CPO for the fulfillment of the biodiesel industry in line with the implementation of the B 30 policy. Based on the monitoring of the Ministry of Trade, the national average cooking oil price last week for bulk cooking oil was IDR 16,100 per liter, simple packaged cooking oil IDR 16,200 per liter and premium packaged cooking oil Rp17,800 per liter.