After Food Prices Soar High, DPR Asks The Ministry Of Trade To Improve Food Trading

Residents queue to buy cooking oil amid scarcity, Friday (4/3/2022). (Antara/M Iqbal)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the DPR, Intan Fauzi, asked the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) to improve the food trade system so that the incident of soaring food prices does not happen again. Intan believes that problems like this must be resolved immediately for the benefit of the community.

"The Ministry of Trade must be present to improve the food trade system, because the root causes of this problem in the upstream must be resolved, so that the people are not burdened from year to year," said Intan, quoted by VOI from the parliament's website, Saturday, March 12.

Not only that, Intan also asked the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Industry to map the food needs of national data.

"Only then, look at the available domestic supply to allocate the imports of the needed food," he added.

He further requested collaboration between Bulog (Logistics Affairs Agency), the National Food Agency, and food holding SOEs to maintain price stability and food supply availability, so that distribution from the principal to the retail level can be well integrated.

On the other hand, Intan highlighted food exporters in Indonesia. He hopes exporters to obey the rules in Indonesia. According to the legislator for the West Java VI constituency, exporters must still be able to meet the supply of the domestic market, but if they do not comply, the government must dare to take firm action.

"If you do not comply with the provisions of the regulation, then revoke your business license. Meanwhile, import regulations need to be prepared in the near future, because we are still dependent on imported food, so that the problem of import dependence does not continue to burden the people," said Intan.