Soybean Prices Are Still High, Get Ready To Know Tempe Is Increasingly Expensive During Ramadan

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) reported that the prices of world food commodities, especially soybeans, were still in a fairly high range of figures earlier this year.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that until March 2023 the price of soybeans was observed to be at the level of 1,518 US dollars per bushel.

This amount tends to be stable from the previous month's 1.525 US dollars per bushel. Meanwhile, the normal price of soybeans before the pandemic was traded at a level below 1.000 dollars per bushel.

"The global commodity price is still volatile with the prices of several food commodities still high," he told the media crew, quoted on Thursday, March 16.

The Minister of Finance added that similar conditions also occurred in corn commodities at a price of 629 US dollars per bushel from normal in the range of 300-400 US dollars per bushel.

"This is what we have to pay attention to, especially for volatile food inflation which has increased to 7.62 percent in February from the previous 5.47 percent in January," he said.

As is known, food prices groups tend to increase during the Ramadan period due to increasing demand.

This condition has the potential to disrupt purchasing power because soybeans are raw materials for processed tofu and tempeh products that are widely consumed by the public.

Meanwhile, domestic soybean needs are almost 100 percent met by foreign markets (imports). Data released by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) states that in 2021 Indonesia imports 2.49 million tons of soybeans with an estimated value of 1.48 billion US dollars.