Controlling Food Prices

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

High price of eggs: Heri, 27, arranges chicken eggs for sale at his kiosk at Slipi Market in Jakarta on Sunday (16/12/2018). The prices of basic necessities at the end of the year always fluctuates, including the price of eggs, which increases sharply. According to Heri, the price of eggs was Rp 25,000 per kilogram at the most but is currently at Rp 27,000 per kg, which many shoppers have complained about.

The price of daily foods rises ahead of every religious holiday. This increase is preventable, because these holidays fall every year.

The government’s efforts to stabilize the price of Medium III rice, eggs, chicken meat, and cabe keriting (curly chili), which have risen above the government\'s reference price in the last two weeks, have not reduced the prices.

Price hikes ahead of religious holidays occur regularly every year because of increased demand. This also shows that food remains one of the most important expenditures for most people.

Prices should not necessarily increase before religious holidays if preparatory measures are implemented done well, starting from upstream production to consumer distribution.

The production of eggs and chicken meat can be regulated because the poultry industry is like a factory. The same applies to chili production. The government has also imported rice to maintain prices through the yearend.

The recurring price hike raises the question as to whether our direction and strategy in food policy are correct. It is not enough that our food strategy merely increases food production and self-sufficiency. Moreover, this self-sufficiency must also apply beyond rice to include corn, soybean and beef.

This strategy has caused polemics, as seen in the efforts to attain self-sufficiency in corn. These efforts have caused domestically produced corn to grow more expensive than imported corn. The high prices then affect the price of eggs and chicken meat, because corn is the primary feed for broilers and laying hens.

Heading towards the 2019 political year, the price hike in daily food items must be managed properly. If we examine Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, the price of rice continues to increase annually. If the average price of rice was Rp 7,617 per kilogram in 2010, it rose to Rp 8,643 in 2012, to Rp 10,915 in 2015, to Rp 11,536 in 2017, and through November this year, the price hike trend headed towards Rp 11,900.

The government is maintaining special policies in its bid to protect the poor from rising food prices. However, there are many people near the poverty line whose welfare is also affected by rising food prices.

There are several ways to reduce food prices. The first is to increase production by, for example, providing paddy fields to enable farmers to work without the need to rent the land or mechanize their agricultural production. Another way is to reduce prices through subsidies for upstream and/or downstream production, or to import cheaper food from the world market.

Another way is to increase incomes to boost purchasing power. This means that the creation of quality jobs that provide adequate and sustainable benefits.

As food is a basic need, it is a basic right for all. The state must therefore guarantee the food availability and access while meeting the demand with adequate, safe, quality and nutritiously balanced food sources.