Price Increases Have Occurred Since Chinese New Year, Meat Sellers Say Their Turnover Has Dropped By 75 Percent

Beef sellers in the market fall asleep because there are no buyers, as a result of high price increases/ Photo: Rizky Sulistio/ VOI

JAKARTA – Beef traders throughout Greater Jakarta and Banten are planning to go on strike due to the high price of beef, both local and imported.

Suhaili, one of the beef traders at Pasar Senen Block III, said that the traders will go on strike so that meat prices return to normal.

"Every year it's always like this, there is an increase (in meat prices). We hold a strike so that there will be a decrease in prices, if it's like this how do we want to trade. Fortunately, there isn't any," said Suhaili when met by VOI at a meat stall/kiosk, Blok III, Pasar Senen , Central Jakarta, Friday 25 February.

According to Suhaili, all beef sellers in Jabodetabek complained of the same thing, namely the increase in meat prices.

Because according to him, with the increase in the price of meat, the public's interest in buying meat at the same time will drop drastically.

"Buyers have decreased by 75 percent. The increase has been from the end of the Lunar New Year, the arrivals continue to increase. Consumers are increasingly absent, it's been more than a month," he said.

Although he still insists on selling, the profit he gets is getting smaller because the price of buying beef from slaughterhouses (RPH) is also expensive.

"What is there is running out of capital. Yes, that's right, the complaints (traders) are the same from Jabodetabek," he said. In his daily life, Suhaili sells local and imported beef at the Blok III stall, Pasar Senen.

"Usually I buy local beef from slaughterhouses (RPH) in Tangerang. I sell mostly local beef because the buyers are mostly local (beef)," he said.

Suhaili, representing his fellow beef traders in Block III Pasar Senen, hopes that by holding a mass strike on Monday, the government can stabilize beef prices.

"We want prices to be stable again as usual," he said.