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High cooking oil prices fry Indonesian food hawkers
Rising prices force them to choose between slimmer profit margins or raising prices but losing customers.
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A street food vendor relies on used cooking oil to fry fish in Jakarta in this undated photo. (The Jakarta Post/Umair )
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treet food hawker Azis, who sells batagor (fried fish dumplings) around a residential area in Cirendeu, Banten, saw his profits cut by about a third this year, crushed by soaring cooking oil and ingredient prices.
He said on April 28 that his profits had dropped 33 percent to Rp 3 million (US$208) a month, from the average Rp 4.5 million a month, ever since the government revoked a price cap on packaged cooking oil in mid-March.
Selling only fried food, Azis needs approximately 60 liters of packaged cooking oil per month. One liter of cooking oil cost around Rp 20,000 to Rp 22,000 before the price hike, he noted. As of today, the same amount costs him around Rp 50,000.
“It is difficult with the new cooking oil price — most of my customers don’t want to pay higher prices. I’m worried they will shift to other sellers if I raise the price,” he said. “I’m still finding new ways to cope with the rising [cooking oil] price.”
Azis is one among the millions of street hawkers in Indonesia forced to make a tough choice between taking slimmer profits or raising prices but losing customers, as a result of high food inflation.
Hawkers told The Jakarta Post that the onset of the Ramadan period helped cushion the blow as higher demand amid the fasting month offset some of the higher costs, but they were also bracing to make tougher choices once the period ended.
The government set the Idul Fitri holiday for May 2 and 3 with a collective leave period from May 4 to 6.
