Vice President Reviewing Johar Market Semarang, Chili Prices Drop By IDR 40 Thousand Per Kg

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin during a dialogue with traders at Johar Market, Semarang City, Central Java, Thursday (28/12/2023). (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin reviewed the fluctuations in the price of basic necessities at Johar Selatan Baru Market, Semarang City, Central Java, Thursday, December 28.

The Vice President and Mrs. Wury Ma'ruf Amin arrived at Johar Market at around 10:00 WIB and had a dialogue with a number of chili traders in the Earth-based kiosk zone.

"Suddenly the price went up, sir. What doesn't make sense is that the price of chili five days ago was Rp. 100 thousand, now it has dropped to Rp. 40 thousand per kg," said one of the traders to Vice President Ma'ruf.

Chili trader named Riyati (60) said the price of curly red chili is currently around Rp. 52 thousand per kg, or down from the price the day before, which ranged from Rp. 58,000 per kg.

Meanwhile, the price of large green chilies currently ranges from IDR 45 thousand per kg or decreases from IDR 37 thousand per kg.

Responding to this situation, the Vice President said that the fluctuations in chili prices during the Christmas holidays and ahead of the New Year celebrations became a cycle of increasing consumer demand which routinely occurs every year.

"Because Christmas and New Year, day usually goes down," the Vice President told traders.

On that occasion, a number of traders also expressed their hope that Johar Market could return to the many buyers as experienced before the 2015 fire incident.

"The hope of traders here is that this market will be busy again, because many of the residents of the market here have moved where they don't know," another trader told the Vice President.

He said more than half of the traders at Johar Market died after their fire.

Efforts to attract consumers in the market, which is now inhabited by around 339 traders, are not only carried out by the local government by revitalizing a more modern building architecture, but also facilitating access to digital consumer transactions.

One of the facilities presented is the payment of non-cash QR through the provider of the Mandiri banking network.