Trade Minister Zulhas Borong Basic Needs When Monitoring Food Prices In Samarinda East Kalimantan

Minister of Trade, Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan bought up a number of basic necessities such as broiler eggs, broiler chicken, and tin pepper while monitoring the price of food at Merdeka Market Samarinda, East Kalimantan (Kaltim), Wednesday, August 31. "How much is this egg price, ma'am," asked the Trade Minister when he first entered the market stall and immediately stopped at the chicken egg stall. Hearing the Minister of Trade's question, the mother of the egg seller immediately said that the price of the broiler eggs she sold was Rp. 65 thousand per shelf, then the Trade Minister bought the eggs as many as six shelves. During the visit to the traditional market, as reported by Antara, the Minister of Trade was accompanied by East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor, Samarinda Mayor Andi Harun, East Kalimantan Provincial Bank Indonesia Head Ricky Perdana Gozali, and a number of related officials both within the East Kalimantan Provincial Government and the Samarinda City Government. The market atmosphere was so dense when the minister and his entourage visited the kiosk, in fact a number of mothers even asked for a selfie with the minister, at another stall with the governor, and at another stall asked for a selfie with the mayor. The minister and his entourage then had a dialogue with traders and visited a broiler stall to buy how many chickens. The Trade Minister again stopped at a vegetable stall selling tin pepper. In this stall, the Minister of Trade bought 4 kilograms of tinung chili at a price of Rp. 50,000 per kilogram. Zulkifli then headed to the parking lot used as a low-cost market operation, especially bulk cooking oil packaged in plastic bottles per 2 liters at a price of Rp. 24 thousand per bottle or Rp. 12 thousand per liter. At this location, Zulkifli greeted women who were queuing for cooking oil and asked how much per liter was. The queuers can only buy a maximum of two bottles or 4 liters per person. When met by reporters after traveling around the market, Trade Minister Zulkifli said the prices of a number of basic necessities such as the current rising chilies were still within reasonable limits due to declining supplies due to a number of producing regions experiencing crop failure.