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Govt to streamline staple food supply chain
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Traders sell various staple foods at a market in Jakarta. (KONTAN/Fransiskus Simbolon)
T
he government will streamline the staple food supply chain in an effort to prevent price hikes when demand increases, such as during Ramadhan and the Idul Fitri holiday, Agriculture Minister Amran Suleiman said on Wednesday.
The move is in response to an instruction by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s to relevant ministries, particularly the Trade Ministry and Agriculture Ministry, to find a long-term solution to address the problem, Amran added.
"Our solution is to shorten the supply chain," he said at the State Palace.
Meanwhile, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong pointed out that a streamlined supply chain would only not benefit consumers but also farmers.
To address the complex challenges to streamline the supply chain, relevant parties need to prepare facilities, such as warehouses, Lembong said.
Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) recently said there was a huge discrepancy between farmers’s prices for distributors and prices for market vendors.
According to KPPU head Syarkawi Rauf, it indicates that the problem lies in the supply chain between producer and distributor.
For example, farmers in East Java sell shallots for Rp 16,000 (US$1.21) per kilogram to distributors, who resell the commodity for almost three times as much at Rp 40,000 per kg at the market. (bbn)
