FOOD PRICES INCREASING IN FACE OF FASTING MONTH

By Andi Abdussalam

        Jakarta, Sept 1 (ANTARA) - Prices of basic necessaries in various cities in Indonesia such as in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi are moving upward in the face of the fasting month which starts on Monday (Sept 1).

        In the meantime, the government has guaranteed that stocks of various essential commodities such as rice, eggs, beef and chickens are enough to meet the need during this year's religious festivities of Idul Fitri, Idul Adha, Christmas, and New Year.

        "We previously doubted the availability of enough stocks but after we checked it in the market, we found that the stocks are enough," Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono said over the weekend.

        The minister said in order to ensure the availability of basic necessaries, he collected information from regional governments, met with associations food retailers and went to the market to check stocks.

        The results of the Ministry of Agriculture's field inspections showed that food stocks in the face of the religious holidays in 2009 were enough.

        Rice stocks reached 35,484.8 thousand tons exceeding the need for 31,799 tons, sugar 6,146.4 thousand tons surpassing the need for 4,842.3 thousand tons, cooking oil 6,216.3 thousand tons well over the need for 3,990.6 thousand tons and peanut 760 thousand tons slightly above the need for 754.1 thousand tons. Chicken meat, beef and egg stocks are also enough.

        The government is able to guarantee enough stocks thanks to the country's increasing food production over the past several years.

        Head of national food resilience affairs at the agriculture ministry Dr Achmad Suryana said the average annual production increase in the last four years for rice was 2.6 percent, corn 7.6 percent, soybean 1.4 percent, cassava 1.7 percent, palm oil 18.4 percent, sugar 21.9 percent, beef 6.5 percent, chicken 17.4 percent, chicken eggs 9.2 percent and fish 6.7 percent.

        He also predicted that food production in 2008 would be higher than in 2007. The outputs of various foods in 2008 would be paddy 59.9 million tons of dried milled rice, corn 14.9 million tons, sugar 4.5 million tons, crude palm oil (CPO) 19.8 million tons and chicken 1.5 million tons.

        While their stocks are enough, basic commodities are having prices move upward in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and South Sulawesi as the country's Muslims begin the fasting month of Ramadan.

        "Prices of essential commodities are sky-rocketing due to the high demand for the goods," Rasman (45), a trader in the Rangkasbitung market, Lebak district, Banten, said.

        Prices of a number of commodities in Lebak are increasing in the face of the fasting month. The price of tomato for example has increased from Rp2000 a kg to Rp4000, pea nut from Rp12,000 to Rp13,000 per kg, `kemiri' (fruit of aleurites moluccana tree) from Rp15,000 to Rp18,000 per kg and rice from Rp5,000 to Rp5,500 a kg.

        In East Java, particularly in the traditional market of Sidoarjo district, the price on Saturday of chicken eggs increased from Rp12,000 per kg to Rp14,500, chicken meat from Rp20,000 per kg to Rp22,000, coconut from Rp4,000 each to Rp8,000, rice from Rp5,500 per kg to Rp5,700 and LPG in 12-kg cylinders from Rp63,000 to Rp75,000.

        "The price of chicken meat has been increasing since two weeks ago. It almost increases every day," Juariyah, a trader in the Genteng traditional market in Surabaya said.

        Prices on other commodities such as rice, chicken eggs, union, garlic, potato and beef are also escalating, she said.

        In North Sumatra, traders also confirmed the increase in the prices of basic necessaries. They said prices had over the past two days increased by about 12 percent.

        "Prices of slaughtered chickens increased from Rp22,000 each to Rp25,000 and beef from Rp60,000 per kg to Rp70,000," Mahdi a trader in a Medan Market, said on Saturday.

        The same upward trend in the prices of basic commodities are also taking place in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. Essential commodity prices in the province increased by about 10 to 15 percent.

        Laksmi Edmond of the local trade and industry office said the price increase was still relatively reasonable. "We still tolerate an increase of about 20 percent provided that we still have stocks," she added.

        In the meantime, the prices of basic commodities in Makassar, South Sulawesi, have been increasing over the past two days. The price of chickens as monitored in the Toddopuli and Terong markets increased from Rp30,000 per head to Rp35,000, beef from Rp40,000 to Rp45,000-Rp50,000, chicken eggs from Rp14,000 per kg to Rp15,000, cooking oil from Rp8,000 per liter to Rp9,500 and palm sugar from Rp6,000 per kg to Rp8,000.

        In anticipation of the price increases of various basic commodities in the face of the fasting month and other religious festivities, the Ministry of Trade urged regional administrations to organize cheap markets in their respective province.

        The Ministry of Trade has established cooperation with the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) as well as sugar and cooking oil producers to help the organization of the cheap markets with regional governments.

        "We have instructed regional governments to actively launch cheap markets. We hope that they would start organizing cheap commodity markets at the end of August," Gunaryo, director for market development and distribution affairs of the Directorate General for Domestic Trade of the Trade Ministry, said last week  (T.A014/A/HNG/A/E002)  01-09-2008 00:32:10