JAKARTA - The alleged hoarding of 1.1 million kilograms of cooking oil in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, which was successfully uncovered by the authorities, has raised concerns and anger. In the midst of the soaring price of one of these basic commodities, there are still individuals who are involved in fraudulent activities for personal gain.
On the other hand, the government through the Ministry of Trade has been working hard to stabilize retail prices by setting a maximum selling limit of Rp. 14,000 in various parts of Indonesia. In fact, the state has given a subsidy of IDR 7.6 trillion to reduce price fluctuations in the market.
So, it is only natural that the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi is furious over the hoarding that makes it difficult for the community to obtain cooking oil. He even had time to make a strong statement to the people who were caught doing a monopoly and storing cooking oil in large quantities.
"I remind you once again that the Ministry of Trade will definitely take the rogue perpetrators of hoarding cooking oil to justice," said the Minister of Trade Lutfi in a high-pitched voice during a sudden inspection (sidak) simultaneously to a number of regions in Indonesia experiencing a shortage of migraine, in Makassar, Thursday middle of this week.
Just so you know, officers found a pile of cooking oil belonging to a producer located in Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra totaling 1.1 million kilograms on Friday, February 18.
Head of the Economic Bureau of the North Sumatran Provincial Government, Naslindo Sirait said the Food Task Force consisting of the North Sumatra Police and the Industry and Trade Department conducted an inspection to investigate the scarcity of cooking oil.
"Today we did an inspection of one cooking oil producer, last night we went to the markets to see the availability of cooking oil, several markets were empty. Today we saw the fact that there were around 1.1 million kilograms of cooking oil ready to be marketed. in the warehouse," said Naslindo as reported by the editor.
Naslindo also appealed to producers, distributors and traders not to hoard traded food ingredients.
"We must not complicate the difficult situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic with bad behavior. All of us, especially entrepreneurs, must have the awareness that we must together save our economy," he said.
The pile of cooking oil found by the Food Task Force Team of North Sumatra Province in Deli Serdanng Regency, turned out to belong to PT Salim Ivomas Pratama Tbk (SIMP). Unmitigated pile of cooking oil that is ready to be marketed amounted to 1.1 million kilograms.
The management of Salim Ivomas also spoke up. According to one of the Indofood Group entities belonging to conglomerate Anthony Salim, 1.1 million kg of cooking oil found by the Task Force team at the Deli Serdang Factory Warehouse, is equivalent to 80 thousand cartons for 2-3 days of delivery.
"All available stock is an order and ready to be distributed to our customers for the next few days," wrote Salim Ivomas management in a statement, Saturday, February 19.
Even so, the producer of the Bimoli brand of cooking oil said that the company's cooking oil factory prioritizes meeting the cooking oil needs of the Group's instant noodle factories spread throughout Indonesia, including in Deli Serdang. This, he said, is to ensure that food needs are in good supply.
"Our cooking oil production at the Lubuk Pakam Deli Serdang Factory is mainly used for the needs of Indofood's instant noodle factory in Sumatra, amounting to 2,500 tons/month," added Salim Ivomas' management.
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