Deputy Chairman Of The DPRD Kotawaringin Timur Assesses Cooking Oil Problems Due To Weak Supervision: I Believe Our Stocks Are Abundant

Illustration of scarcity of cooking oil. (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - The availability of cooking oil and exorbitant prices cause problems in the community. This also happened in Kotawaringin Timur Regency, Central Kalimantan, which is one of the areas with the largest contributor of CPO (crude palm oil).

Deputy Chairman II of the DPRD for East Kotawaringin Regency, Hairis Salamad, assessed that this problem arose due to the weak supervision of the local government. This has an impact on distribution to the community that is not smooth.

"I see that the cooking oil trade system needs to be perfected. I believe our cooking oil stock is abundant, but there may be phases of hoarding. This is what needs to be pursued so that there will be no more price spikes," said Hairis in Sampit, as quoted by Antara, Saturday 16 April.

Hairis admitted that he was very concerned about the problem of cooking oil turmoil. Very ironic, the high price of cooking oil also happened in East Kotawaringin.

The politician from the National Mandate Party said that the area of oil palm plantations in this area has even reached 49 percent of the total area, but ironically the people also have to mess around with the spike in cooking oil prices.

Hairis and his staff have gone directly to check the availability of cooking oil at modern retail, but it turns out to be empty, even though the district government has always claimed that the stock is sufficient.

He hopes that the Department of Trade and Industry really looks at the facts on the ground. People should not only be given sweet promises.

"People hope, stock is available and prices are cheap. Don't let chickens die in the rice barn. It's a pity for the community. Supervision by local governments has not been maximized. Don't just report data. Must go to the field," said Hairis.

Meanwhile, the Head of Trade at the East Kotawaringin Department of Trade and Industry, Pity, during an audience with students at the East Kotawaringin DPRD building, last Wednesday (13/4) confirmed that the stock of cooking oil in this area was safe.

"The stock of bulk cooking oil is 1,182,836 liters, simple packaging cooking oil 85,608 liters and premium packaging 34,204 liters. The stock is very large. If we can look at the market, there has never been a problem for people to flock or jostle to find cooking oil," said Kasiyan.

According to him, currently there is one producer that produces cooking oil in East Kotawaringin so that the availability of cooking oil in this area is safe. It also continues to monitor distribution and stock in the market so that it is always maintained.