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High food prices lead to 'chickens dying in a rice barn'
So why are food prices in Indonesia so high, especially compared to neighboring countries?
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Great harvest – Farmers carry paddy grains they will mill at a milling factory in Ngawi, East Java, on Oct.13. (Antara/Ari Bowo Sucipto)
W
e Indonesians pride ourselves on being a nation of plenty. From elementary to high school, our textbooks depict how wondrously beautiful, lush and fertile our nation is. It is obviously a source of national pride. The Javanese have a saying for it: gemah ripah loh jinawi.
Unfortunately this saying is fraught with ironies, manifested in Indonesia’s ills as a nation. Unemployment forces 6.5 million people — 85 percent of whom are women — to work abroad. There is an ever-widening income disparity. The wealthiest one percent of the population comprise nearly half of total national wealth while over 28 million people, almost 11 percent of the population, live below the poverty line. Last but not least, there are high food prices.
So why are food prices in Indonesia so high, especially compared to neighboring countries?
The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) publishes a monthly household index, the Indeks Bulanan Rumah Tangga (Indeks Bu RT), comparing the prices of basic commodities in middle and high income neighboring countries.
