Friday, March 29, 2024 | 17:54 WIB

Government’s Inept Measures in Food Scarcity

Jakarta, IO – Our country has come to terms with staple food issues within society until recently. Starting from a cooking oil shortage that led to its price to soar, the surging price of soybeans forcing tofu and tempeh industry out of business, chilies, cooking gas, beef and now sugar is unavailable anywhere. 

When cooking oil was reported to be getting scarce, the government reacted by conducting surprise inspections at traditional markets. Surprise! Cooking oil magically appeared and became available, but as soon as the inspectors left once again ceased to exist. 

Measures taken by the government proved incompetent. Instead of untangling supply and distribution issues, the authorities opted for a self-ingratiating policy by inspecting markets with news crews in tow. 

A statement from the Trade Minister suggested the cooking oil scarcity was the result of hoarding by consumers. How could people possibly be stocking up on cooking oil while their purchasing power is so low? 

Household consumption expenditure was recorded at only growing by 2.02 percent within 2021, evidence of just how low purchasing power has sunk. 

Such a declaration reveals how the government does not comprehend the difference between stockpiling for profiteering and buying a sufficient quantity for consumption. 

Eventually, sugar vanished from the market; this led to serious problems among the people, particularly negatively affecting microeconomic businesses. 

In January 2022, the shortfall of sugar was estimated to be astonishing: while annual projected needs marked 7.13 million tons, the sugar production SOEs were only able to fulfill 2.2 million tons per year. 

Thus, the government issued a policy inviting in foreign investors, offering them the potential to hold up to 49 percent of the shares. The policy was expected to positively impact the supply of sugar. Unfortunately, the sugar shortage endured. 

Why do the staples’ soaring prices take turns to happen as if they were in a certain price timeline? This is indeed a vital question. Had it only concerned technicalities, issues related to staples would not persist. 

Once more, the government has pursued an inadequate and inept approach towards the staples scarcity problems.

To date, there has not been any confirmed coordination among authorities, ministries and institutions to ensure food supply will suffice to fulfill Ramadhan demand. 

The government seems helpless in facing staples producers and blames consumers instead, an irony. 

The staples scarcity might stimulate the government to import more. However, importing staples is the least desirable choice to make, as Indonesia is suffering a trade balance deficit. The flareup of conflict between Ukraine and Russia has also sent prices of imports upward, far more than optimizing domestic resources. 

The government needs to seek an amelioration on food scarcity, as the current measures have proven incompetent. One suggestion is to form a mafia desk to search the hoarders’ staple goods, just like when they created a BLBI desk. 

The desk must consist of cross-ministries and security forces; it aims to abolish the government policy distorting the pegged price: by establishing retail prices as stipulated by Trade Ministry Regulation (Permendag) No. 6/2022.

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