South Sulawesi Head Of Trade And Trade: Panic Buying Triggers Less Cooking Oil In The Market

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MAKASSAR - Head of the South Sulawesi Trade Service Ashari Fakhsirie Radjamilo said that people were still experiencing "panic buying" which resulted in the lack of cooking oil found in the market.

"There is one thing that has happened, namely panic buying and it has not disappeared in the community, especially before Ramadan," said Ashari responding to the difficulty of people getting cooking oil on the market, including at a number of retailers in Makassar City, South Sulawesi, quoted by Antara, Thursday, March 24.

Whereas previously, as of March 16, the government had revoked the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) number 6 regarding the HET (Highest Retail Price) for palm cooking oil worth Rp. 11,500, then replaced it with Permendag number 11 which stipulates the HET of Rp. 14 thousand, specifically for oil. bulk.

Based on field observations, the stock of packaged cooking oil in various retailers is again abundant because the latest Minister of Trade Regulation no longer regulates the HET for packaged oil.

It's just that, in the last few days, packaged cooking oil is now hard to find on the market again. If anything, every citizen is limited to buying, just 2 liters per person.

"I cannot deny that packaged cooking oil is also difficult for us to obtain, but we are trying to explain it. We go back to distributors to explain why there are still many shortages of stock in retail," said Ashari.

Regarding the price of packaged cooking oil, Ashari emphasized that it was left to market players, and based on their agreement, the price of cooking oil in the market varied. Starting from IDR 21,500, IDR 24 thousand to IDR 28 thousand per liter.

Related to that, the Trade Service, Food Security Service, Food Task Force and a number of related parties have coordinated regarding food readiness ahead of Ramadan.

At the coordination meeting, it was emphasized that all food distributors, including cooking oil and sugar, must not hold goods, all must be removed so that people do not panic, especially ahead of Ramadan.

"We emphasize that all City/Regency Heads of Trade and Industry are communicating with the provincial Trade Office, conveying the need for goods. To this day, we admit that we have received many complaints from regencies regarding cooking oil stocks," he said.

Involving district PD Pasar for monitoring the prices of basic goods, and KPPU in confirming that market availability is not allowed to store goods.