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Imports to maintain food supply during Ramadhan, Idul Fitri: Jokowi
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo speaks in a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. He said the decision to allow the importation of staple foods was made to keep up supply and maintain stable prices during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri. (Courtesy of the Presidential Office/-)
T
he decision to allow the importation of food commodities is aimed at maintaining both the available supply and stable prices during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri festivities, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said.
Jokowi said the government was monitoring the available supply of four staple food commodities, namely shallots, sugar, beef and rice, which often experience price hikes due to a shortage of supply.
The importation of staple foods is intended to meet the increased market demand ahead of Ramadhan, added Jokowi.
“Several ministries have been calculating supply and demand. If the demand is excessively large and the production capacity is insufficient to meet demand, it must be fulfilled through imports," Jokowi explained on Wednesday.
The government decided to import 2,500 tons of shallots to meet the availability of seeds required by farmers one to two months ahead. Currently, the seed price sits at Rp 42,000 (US$3.07) to Rp 43,000 per kilogram.
Imported beef deliveries are expected to arrive in the first week of Ramadhan, in the middle of June, President Jokowi said.
By importing 27,400 tons of beef, Jokowi said, the government expects the beef price to drop to around Rp 80,000 per kg, the target set by the government.
The imports were initiated to keep staple foods affordable, he emphasized.
"We expect the price of shallots to decrease, as well as sugar, beef and rice," the President said.
Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said the government expected the shallot price to drop to Rp 25,000 per kg while the price of rice and sugar could decline to Rp 9,500 and Rp 12,500 per kg, respectively.
Apart from the importation, Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said the government would also shorten the distribution channel to reduce the price of food commodities.
"The mechanism [to reduce food prices] is not to turn off small trader activities in traditional markets, but to supply distributors with commodities sold at a lower price than the market price," he said as quoted by kompas.com. (ebf)
