CARTELS ALLEGEDLY CONTROL INDONESIA'S SIX FOOD SECTORS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 12 (Antara) - Indonesia with its 240 million population is a huge market for food commodities, thus offering a loophole for 'shrewd' businesses to develop and practice oligopoly.          The high rocketing of beef prices in the Indonesian market of late has led many quarters to argue that cartels have controlled the food business in Indonesia.          The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) even believes that cartels have controlled prices in at least six food commodities.          It has predicted that the total benefits that the cartels could enjoy from the importation of food stuff could reach Rp11.3 trillion per annum from the total annual imports of foods worth Rp90 trillion.          Kadin Deputy Chairman for logistics affairs Natsir Mansyur said that the cartels could reap Rp11.3 trillion if, for example, they took a minimum profit of Rp1,000 per kg beef. It was reported beef importers took profit between Rp1,000 and Rp5,000 per kg.          "We believe that cartels have the potential to take place in six food commodity business, namely beef, chickens, sugar, soybean, maize and rice. From the six commodities they could reap a profit of about Rp11 trillion," he said.          He predicted the profit that the cartels could enjoy could reach the average range of 15 to 30 percent of the total imports.