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Market intervention fails to bring egg prices down much
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Eggs were sold at Rp 28,000 (US$1.93) per kilogram at Tebet Barat Market in South Jakarta on Tuesday. (Shutterstock/LightField Studios)
T
he prices of eggs, long known as the most affordable source of protein, remain high after the government intervened at eight traditional markets in Jakarta on Monday.
At Tebet Barat Market in South Jakarta, the price of eggs only dropped temporarily from Rp 28,000 (US$1.93) per kilogram to Rp 23,000 per kg during the market operation.
“We carried out a market operation by distributing 10 tons of eggs yesterday,” said Food Resilience Agency head Agung Hendriadi on Tuesday, as reported by kontan.co.id.
The operation was conducted at three markets in East Jakarta -- Jatinegara Market, Kramat Jati Market and Pasar Cijantung Market; at three markets in South Jakarta -- Tebet Barat Market, Mampang Prapatan Market and Toko Tani Indonesia Centre (TTIC) Pasar Minggu, as well as at Pademangan Barat Market in North Jakarta and Grogol Market in West Jakarta.
Agung said the government planned to distribute another 7 tons of eggs in a market intervention operation outside Java, such as in cities like Medan and Makasar, if the price of eggs remained high.
He said the price of eggs from farmers was only Rp 21,000 per kg. Therefore, he concluded, the price increase was not triggered by high price chicken feed prices but because traders sought excessive margins.
Meanwhile, the head of Jakarta’s food resilience and supervision division, Mujiati, said the city administration was cooperating with the central government in trying to push egg prices down through market intervention.
But she estimated that the price would even increase ahead of the Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations because of increased demand. (bbn)
