TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Cartel-like practices may be behind skyrocketing chili prices in East Kalimantan
Change Size
Skyrocketing prices -- A vendor waits for consumers at her kiosk at Ciputat Market, South Tangerang, on Jan.2. (Antara/Teresia May)
T
he Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan suspects a price agreement among chili suppliers led to the skyrocketing price of chilies in the city.
“Cartel-like practices have been carried out here,” KPPU Balikpapan chairman Ahmad Muhari said on Tuesday.
The KPPU found all red chilies supplied to Balikpapan were sold at Rp 63,000 (US$4.72) per kilogram by middlemen in East Java and South Sulawesi. The chilies were packed in cardboard boxes with a capacity of 35-kg each.
Vendors in Balikpapan later sold the commodity to consumers at Rp 90,000 per kg for red chilies and Rp 80,000 per kg for mixed red and white chilies, locally known as oplosan.
Muhari said chili supplies to Balikpapan were large enough to reduce the price of the commodity at retailers that sold them directly to consumers.
“We will soon coordinate with KPPU Makassar to get further information on the matter. If it’s true that there's been a price agreement, we will take a tough measure,” he said.
Articles 17 to 24 of Law No.5/1999 on the prohibition of monopolies and unhealthy business competition practices carry heavy punishments against cartel-like practices. Defendants can be sanctioned with heavy fines in court.
Late delivery has also been identified as another cause of the skyrocketing chili prices. High waves caused by bad weather in Makassar Strait have also hampered the delivery of chilies from Surabaya (East Java), Makassar (South Sulawesi), Mamuju (West Sulawesi) or Palu (Central Sulawesi) to Balikpapan. (ebf)
