Prices Soaring, The Trade Minister Will Gradually Import Onions

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The price of basic necessities began to have an upward trend. Even the onions, which have not had a hike in price, are moving wildly because of the insufficient supply. The price of onions has gone up rapidly, even 10 times.

Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto confirmed that the high price of onions was due to the low stock in the field. The government is currently trying to continue processing the Import Approval Letter (SPI) in stages according to the Horticultural Product Import Recommendation (RIPH) given by the Directorate General of Horticulture, Ministry of Agriculture.

"As soon as possible, we are processing RIPH. We will issue them according to the request, ”he said, when met at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 11.

As for the initial stage, the Ministry of Trade has issued SPI for 2,000 tonnes of onions. According to Agus, this week the Ministry of Trade will also issue another request to import onions.

"The one I took out last week. This week we will immediately issue RIPH and import requests, "he said.

Agus explained that the import permit from the Ministry of Trade was issued based on the recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture. According to Agus, once there is an RIPH, the import permit application is submitted.

"After that, the documents are checked for completeness, only then will the import permit be issued," he said.

In addition, Agus revealed, until now, there have been applications for imports. However, unfortunately Agus is reluctant to explain in more detail.

"Indeed, when the RIPH was released it did not automatically come out that day, we had to process it for some time. But in principle, some have been issued, "he explained.