Rare Cooking Oil, Member Of Commission VI: Troubled Supply Chain From Upstream To Downstream

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the DPR, Deddy Yevri Hanteru Sitorus, highlighted the problem of scarcity of cooking oil that has not been resolved until now. As is known, cooking oil began to become scarce in the market after the government set a one-price policy of Rp. 14,000.

Deddy assessed that the scarcity of cooking oil that occurred in the country was caused by a damaged supply chain. According to him, the supply chain from factories to traders is no longer connected.

"I actually saw that this industry was badly damaged, the supply chain from upstream to downstream was problematic. The supply chain, starting from oil palm planters, CPO producers, cooking oil factories, distributors, agents, to traders, were no longer connected," said Deddy, through his written statement, Tuesday, March 8.

"All parties are harmed. So it's not only the people who have difficulty getting goods, but the prices are very expensive. Because CPO producers are also complaining," he continued.

Deddy admitted that he received reports from CPO producers who complained because there was no guarantee that they could export. In fact, they claim to have met the requirements of the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) and Domestic Price Obligation (DPO) for cooking oil.

"On the cooking oil producer side, the majority feel they are still having trouble getting raw materials," he said.

In fact, continued Deddy, if you look at the industrial structure, from about 400 existing cooking oil factories, almost 51 percent of the total production is controlled by only 4-5 companies. This means that it is actually very easy to know the distribution of the production of cooking oil from these factories.

"I have received complaints from many palm oil entrepreneurs, both domestic and PMA. They are confused by the various unclear regulations that exist, and this is very detrimental to them," he explained.

The Ministry of Trade must solve the cooking oil problem

Currently, the scarcity of cooking oil continues in various regions, including in Jakarta. Meanwhile, the market price is still far from the Highest Retail Price (HET) set by the Ministry of Trade.

The Ministry of Trade has set the highest retail price (HET) for cooking oil starting February 1, 2022, namely the price of bulk cooking oil at IDR 11,500 per liter, the price for simple packaged cooking oil at IDR 13,500 per liter, and the price for premium packaged cooking oil at IDR 14,000 per liter. .

"I haven't seen a comprehensive solution to this problem, it seems to be in place," he said.

Therefore, Deddy hopes that the Ministry of Trade will provide certainty of a solution to this problem. The Ministry of Trade cannot play it safe. The lock on CPO exports not only harms palm oil entrepreneurs, but also harms state revenues. The scarcity of cooking oil is also detrimental to traders and economic actors, both large, medium and small.

"I ask the Ministry of Trade and the Minister of Trade to open up what the problem is that for almost three months the scarcity of cooking oil is still happening. How effective is the DMP, DPO, HET and export ban policies in restoring the structure of production and trade of this commodity?," he said.

"Is there really no effective and systemic way to reduce the existing tangled threads? Until when this problem will be resolved, this must be answered by the Ministry of Trade," concluded Deddy.