Bogor City Government And Police Cooperate In Anticipating Cooking Oil Hoarding

Illustration/Photo: Antara

BOGOR - The Bogor City Government, West Java, is ready to coordinate with the Bogor City Police to take action against indications of hoarding cooking oil by distributors and agents who sell not according to the highest retail price (HET) that has been determined by the central government.

Head of the Cooperative, MSME, Industry and Trade Service (DiskopUMKMdagin) Ganjar Gunawan, when interviewed after a coordination meeting with the Mayor of Bogor, Bima Arya, said that now the authority regarding the issue of cooking oil distribution has become the authority of the police.

"We, the city government can't do anything, because according to the central government, the stock of cooking oil is in excess, a surplus. The police are in charge of distribution," he said in Taman Heulang, Tuesday, March 15.

Ganjar said, in fact, there has been a government-sided policy that provides rules for producers to set aside as much as 20 percent and now 30 percent for domestic market obligation (DMO) from crude palm oil or Crude Palm Oil (CPO) from export willingness, for domestic needs.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry, the realization of palm cooking oil production in 2021 will reach 20.22 million tons. Meanwhile, 5.07 million tons or 5.07 percent is used for domestic needs and the remaining 15.55 million tons or 74.93 percent is for export purposes.

That way, said Ganjar, the scarcity of cooking oil in both modern and traditional markets occurs at the distribution level, not at the stock or availability of goods.

He also explained that the Bogor City Government could not intervene in the mechanism for distributing goods because coordination with producers was carried out by the central government, while distribution also went directly to the market mechanism.

After the producer is willing to prepare the stock, it is then given to the distributor and then distributed to the sub-distributor or agent. From the new agents, it is channeled back to retail traders, namely shops in the market.

On the other hand, distribution to supermarkets or supermarkets as well as supermarkets (minimarkets) can be made between these companies to distributors and sub-distributors.

"So we can't go in to regulate it. To ensure proper distribution, it's with the police. We'll coordinate it later," he said, quoted by Antara.