JAKARTA - The government has set the Highest Retail Price (HET) for cooking oil as of February 1, 2022, at Rp. 11,500 per liter for bulk cooking oil, simple packaged cooking oil at Rp. 13,500 per liter, and premium packaged cooking oil at Rp. 14,000 per liter. But in reality, there is a price, no goods.
That is the reality that happened this week after the government determined that cooking oil must be sold by traders according to the HET. The owner of Usman's shop in Palembang's Perumnas Market, Usman, said that until now he has no stock of cooking oil that is sold according to the HET.
He only sells Fortune brand cooking oil for Rp. 15,000 per liter which is his old stock.
Similarly, Sri, the owner of the Sari Rasa Store at the Perumnas Market, said that he received an offer from a distributor to sell Sunco brand products for two-liter packages for Rp26,800 per two liters.
Sri is still trying to sell her old stock of Fortune brand cooking oil at a price of Rp. 17,000 per liter.
Later, when it runs out, it will only sell for Rp. 14,000 per liter. If sent by a distributor.
It is different with Sholeh, a basic food trader at Pasar Lemabang Palembang said that until now he has not sold cooking oil because he has not received supplies from distributors since the implementation of the HET by the government.
The scarcity of goods in traditional markets also occurs in Palembang's modern retail markets, such as Alfamart. This condition has been happening since the last week.
Regarding this, the Branch Corporate Communication of PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Palembang, Rendra Satria, also did not object.
It continuously supplies cooking oil with various brands and packaging to shops under the Alfamart network at a price of Rp. 14,000 per liter since the implementation of one price cooking oil.
However, due to panic buying, cooking oil stocks are always sold out, no matter how many are sent from the warehouse.
"We have worked around that with one receipt, we can only buy a maximum of two liters, but it's still sold out," he said, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, February 12.
Less production
Officers from the South Sumatra Province Trade Service visited two operational offices of cooking oil distributors in Palembang to ensure product distribution to retailers, Friday, February 11.
The two distributors are PT Indokarya Internusa in the Boom Baru area of Palembang, which produces simple packaged cooking oil under the MM brand, and CV Mekar Abadi in the Padang Tuesday Palembang area, which is a distributor of Fortune's premium packaged oil.
Officers visited to respond to the scarcity of goods from distributors for traders, especially for traditional market traders.
Currently, cooking oil companies are still proposing to replace the price difference with the government to comply with the selling price according to the Highest Retail Price, namely bulk cooking oil of IDR11,500 per liter, simple packaged cooking oil of IDR13,500 per liter, and premium packaged cooking oil of IDR14. 000 per liter.
Because they are still waiting for the realization of the disbursement of these funds, it is estimated that cooking oil companies will reduce production and delay production, or choose not to produce because they do not want to bear the price difference.
This problem actually lies in governance, in which companies that produce cooking oil at the old price are still waiting for a replacement from the government.
Then, to proceed to the stage of cooking oil production at a price according to HET, the government is in the process of calculating it.
The existence of this process takes an estimated one to two weeks ahead.
However, this condition inevitably makes retailers and traders not get supplies from cooking oil distributors, especially since the government strictly regulates the application of cooking oil prices according to HET.
According to him, this problem is no longer in the lower order to solve it, but it is already in the realm of the central government (policy).
"Essentially, immediately disburse the payment of the price difference so that the cooking oil manufacturing company will start producing immediately," he said.
However, his party would be grateful if there was a cooking oil distributor who was willing to carry out market operations using corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds as PT Indokarya Internusa did.
This cooking oil distributor company conducts market operations in collaboration with the South Sumatra Provincial Government to help people who are faced with price spikes of up to IDR 20,000 per liter at the end of 2021 until mid-January 2022.
Operations Manager of PT Indokarya Internusa, Liana, said that her company, which sells simple packaged cooking oil under the MM brand, will continue to operate as usual or not reduce production capacity.
This company produces 60,000 liters of cooking oil per day, almost 50 percent of which is sold in Palembang City and its surroundings.
Currently, the company has a stock of around 3.5 million tons to support the needs of a number of regions in Sumatra, such as South Sumatra and North Sumatra.
Stabilization process
The government issued a policy to control cooking oil prices, by setting domestic supply obligations and prices to ensure the availability of goods at affordable prices.
This policy was taken after the government evaluated the application of one-price cooking oil on January 19, 2022.
The new policy, which applies as of January 27, 2022, consists of three points, namely the domestic mandatory obligation (DMO), namely cooking oil producers that will export are required to supply domestic needs as much as 20 percent of their total export volume.
Meanwhile, the second point is the determination of the domestic price obligation (DPO), in which crude palm oil (CPO) is Rp. 9,300 per kilogram and refined products with fractionated CPO/olein are Rp. 10,300/liter.
Then the third point is the determination of the highest retail price (HET) as of February 1, 2022, namely bulk cooking oil of Rp. 11,500 per liter, simple packaged cooking oil of Rp. 13,500 per liter, and premium packaged cooking oil of Rp. 14,000 per liter.
Director General of Domestic Trade Oke Nurwan in a seminar said cooking oil prices are in the process of stabilizing with the implementation of new policies, namely DMO and DPO.
This policy will break the link between cooking oil prices and international CPO prices.
So far, domestic cooking oil producers buy CPO as raw material for vegetable oil at global prices.
This is because very few cooking oil producers are directly integrated or have their own oil palm plantations.
Due to the increase in world vegetable oil prices since last year, it also has an effect on the increase in the price of palm oil as a raw material for cooking oil.
The government previously implemented a policy of the highest retail price (HET) for cooking oil in the country of Rp. 14,000 per liter. This policy makes CPO producers export their plantation products abroad because of the high global CPO price rather than selling it as domestic cooking oil whose price is limited.
Therefore, the government implements a DMO, namely CPO exporters must allocate 20 percent of their total export volume for domestic needs.
Furthermore, for the domestic selling price of CPO, namely DPO, the government applies the highest price of CPO at Rp 9,500 per kg or in the form of oil at Rp 10,300 per kg. In this way, the price of cooking oil becomes the highest at Rp. 14,000 per liter in the market.
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