Still, we must investigate the matters further.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said that the disruption in cooking oil distribution may have likely been caused by irregularities in the disbursal of crude palm oil (CPO) although domestic CPO supply was adequate.

Therefore, the ministry will collaborate with the National Police and the National Food Agency to ensure the smooth distribution of CPO, he informed.

"We guess that a number of the CPO is utilized by the industries that are not entitled to using it, or the commodity has been exported illegally. Still, we must investigate the matters further,” he said here on Wednesday.

He also appealed to the public to not hoard cooking oil for their own benefit.

"We have verified data regarding the distribution of cooking oil, the information on storage tanks, as well as the distribution channels of the commodity. We will share the data with the police (to improve cooking oil disbursal surveillance)," the minister said.

Further, he emphasized that he will not revoke the regulation on the retail price ceiling (HET) for cooking oil although stocks are sufficient.

The regulation has set the price of cooking oil at Rp11,500 (equivalent to $0.77, as $1 is equivalent to Rp14,465 as of March 9, 2022) per liter for bulk cooking oil, Rp13,500 ($0.91) for cooking oil in simple packaging, and Rp14 thousand ($0.94) for cooking oil in premium packaging.

Related news: Ministry raises cooking oil's domestic market obligation to 30 percent

Meanwhile, the domestic price obligation (DPO) for CPO, the raw material of the commodity, has been set at Rp9,300 ($0.62) per kilogram (kg).

A total of 415,787 tons of cooking oil has been distributed in the market between February 14 and March 8, 2022, Lutfi said.

The figure is about 72.4 percent of the total cooking oil collected from manufacturers through the domestic market obligation (DMO) implemented by the government, he added.

It has exceeded the estimated one-month cooking oil consumption, which is pegged at 327,321 tons, he highlighted.

“Our cooking oil supply is actually abundant,” Lutfi remarked.

Related news: Market operations to ensure cooking oil supply: official



Translator: Sella Gareta, Uyu Liman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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