Consumers prefer imported garlic because the foreign cloves are bigger than domestic ones.
mported garlic is dominating traditional markets in South Sumatra as the Trade Ministry seeks to ensure a steady supply and stable prices as the fasting month of Ramadan approaches.
At the Lemabang Market in Palembang, for example, the ministry conducted an operation on Sunday to help bring down garlic prices to the normal level of Rp 30,000 (US$2.11) per kilogram.
Uni, who sells herbs and kitchen spices at the market, said that before she received the supplies from the Trade Ministry she had been selling garlic at Rp 50,000 per kg because of limited stocks.
She bought two sacks of imported garlic at Rp 20,000 per kg during the market operation, both of which were marked as being from China.
“Consumers like the imported garlic more because [the cloves] are bigger than the local ones, which are very small,” Uni said as she served customers.
According to the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database (UN COMTRADE), Indonesia is the world’s largest importer of garlic, with the country buying more than 580,000 tons of it in 2018.
The South Sumatra Trade Agency calculates Palembang consumes about 40 to 50 tons of garlic per day, much of which is used to make the traditional cuko sauce for the city’s signature pempek (fish cake) dish.
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