Rare Bulk Cooking Oil In Yogyakarta City, Sold Far Above HET

YOGYAKARTA - The distribution of bulk cooking oil in the city of Yogyakarta in the last few days has been stagnating which has resulted in a shortage of the commodity, even the Yogyakarta City Trade Office found traders selling up to Rp. 20,000 per kg.

"The supply stagnation has occurred since the regulation of the highest retail price (HET) for bulk cooking oil was applied. Distributors in Yogyakarta also complained about this," said the Head of the Availability of Trade Supervision and Control of the Yogyakarta City Trade Office, Riswanti, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, March 29. .

According to him, the distribution of bulk cooking oil in Yogyakarta, including in Yogyakarta and Central Java, comes from large distributors in Semarang, Central Java.

"We have also checked in Semarang and the commodities are indeed empty. There are only a few who take them from East Java to meet their needs," he said.

A number of efforts were made by the Yogyakarta City Trade Office to overcome the scarcity of bulk cooking oil, one of which was by holding market operations at the merchant level.

The operation of the bulk cooking oil market has been carried out three times. Finally, on Tuesday (29/3) at Kranggan Market there were 1,530 kg in collaboration with one of the distributors.

In this market operation, traders can obtain bulk cooking oil at a price of around Rp. 14,500 to Rp. 15,000 per liter and it is hoped that it can be sold at a price that is not too high.

"We continue to educate traders to sell at prices that are not too far from HET. However, sometimes they also have to buy at prices that are already high," he said.

Supervision of sales of bulk cooking oil is also continuously carried out because it is possible that the scarcity of bulk cooking oil is also caused by repackaging to become packaged cooking oil.

"This must also be monitored. Now there are many new brands of cooking oil. Of course, it must be ensured that the conformity or packaging standards and other information on the packaging must be correct," he said.

Riswanti said that the government previously tried to eliminate bulk cooking oil and replace it with simple packaged cooking oil so that consumers get information on the products purchased.

"If you buy in bulk, consumers don't get any information. There is no nutritional value or expiration date. However, the plan was not implemented due to current conditions," he said.

Apart from bulk cooking oil, the price of other basic needs in Yogyakarta City is quite stable, such as beef which is sold for Rp. 125,000 per kg.

"But for chili, it has decreased by 20 percent. Conditions leading up to Ramadan sometimes affect the increase in prices of basic necessities," he said.