Prevent Repetitive Gejolak, National Food Agency Guard For The Distribution Of Fried Oil

Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi. (Photo: Public Relations of the National Food Agency)

JAKARTA The National Food Agency encourages increased supply and distribution of domestic cooking oil.

This step is in anticipation of a surge in demand for the Fasting and Eid Religious and National Holidays (HBKN).

Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi said the collaboration between the government and producers through the commitment to increase the distribution of cooking oil could prevent the scarcity of cooking oil that occurred at the beginning of last year from happening again.

"I and the Minister of Trade together with cooking oil producers sit down together to agree on a commitment to increase the distribution of cooking oil for the next 3 months and we will review and evaluate regularly," said Arief in an official statement, Tuesday, January 31.

Through this commitment, said Arief, over the next 3 months, producers were asked to provide and distribute 450,000 tons of people's cooking oil per month, or an increase of 50 percent from the previous amount, which was 300,000 tons per month.

In addition, business actors are also asked to provide guidance to the distribution network they have in order to sell cooking oil according to the Highest Retail Price (HET) at the consumer level, which is Rp. 14,000 per liter for people's packaged cooking oil (Minyaki) and Rp. 15,500 per kg for bulk cooking oil.

"I think the increase in the amount of distribution from 300 thousand to 450 thousand is enough. The producers' response to this joint commitment is also good and positive, marked by the signing of a Statement of Commitment by all producers present," he explained.

Arief believes that this commitment is a good step to secure cooking oil supply ahead of the HBKN which is certain to experience a surge in demand.

Based on data from the Prognosis of the Food Balance for the January-March 2023 period, at the end of March the national cooking oil stock is estimated at around 808,000 tons, while the national cooking oil demand per month is an average of 401,000 tons.

"We must control the distribution in the field together by NFA, the Ministry of Trade, the Food Task Force. To ensure its implementation, producers are asked to report the realization of distribution every week," he said.

Through good cooperation between the government and business actors, he said, it is hoped that cooking oil commodities ahead of the fasting and Eid al-Fitr HBKN this year will not experience turmoil like last year.

In addition, Arief also emphasized the importance of the contribution of cooking oil producers in the implementation of Government Food Reserves (CPP) for Goreng Oil.

Given, he added, the availability of CPP is a long-term solution to keep food commodity supplies and prices from experiencing turmoil.

"According to Presidential Decree No. 125 of 2022 concerning the Implementation of CPP, cooking oil is one of the strategic commodities that must exist and be allocated as CPP. So we ask the producers so that the people's cooking oil (Minyakit) can be allocated to Bulog and ID Food for us to control the price and distribution," he said.