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Market traders bemoan ‘abnormal’ food price increase
Industry association IKAPPI insists that it is too early for the seasonal year-end increase in staple food prices.
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Ground check: Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan visits a traditional market in Koja, North Jakarta, on June 17, 2022, to check the availability and price of cooking oil.
(Courtesy of/Trade Ministry)
T
he Indonesian Traditional Market Traders Association (IKAPPI) says staple food prices have been going up long before they normally do as the year draws toward a close.
The association wrote in a press statement on Tuesday that prices would usually go up one week before the year-end holiday season of Christmas and New Year, as demand surges, but that this year was different.
“An abnormal increasing trend has started to surface,” reads IKAPPI’s statement, detailing that rice, chili and sugar prices had been going up unseasonally.
According to the Center for Strategic Food Prices (PIHPS), a centralized market information system managed by Bank Indonesia (BI), the price of cabai rawit merah (type of cayenne pepper), had shot up by 7 percent in traditional markets in just one week, rising to Rp 92,000 (US$5.96) per kilogram on Tuesday.
The price of the popular chili pepper has also been steadily rising at modern retailers, where it is now sold at Rp 101,900 per kg. It even touched Rp 146,250 per kg in Maluku.
The price of rice, on the other hand, has either stagnated or marginally declined by 0.3 to 0.7 percent to between Rp 13,350 and Rp 15,950 per kg, depending on the quality.
Premium sugar at traditional markets was sold at Rp 17,650 on Tuesday, marking a 1.44 percent increase from a week ago. Local sugar, meanwhile, was up 1.17 percent at Rp 17,300.
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