"Onion farmers in Brebes have actually been requesting the stoppage for years ago but it was always ignored," Suratmo (50), the chief of Tani Makmur farmers group, said in a dialogue with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here on Friday.
President Yudhoyono was in Brebes as part of his Ramadhan tour of several regions in Central and West Java.
Suratmo said farmers had made the request several times to ministers that had come to the region including the minister of agriculture and the minister for people`s welfare but until now imported onions are still circulating and abundant.
He said it was reported that imported onions that entered Brebes were for seedling purposes but the fact was that they were freely sold in the market and not used as seedlings.
"If they are used for seedling they must have leaves but the onions that came had no leaves," he said.
He said although the price of red onion had stabilized in the past three days at Rp6,500 per kilogram farmers remained restless because supply of imported onion remained abundant to make the price of local one to drop and hurt the farmers.
He said the arrival of imported red onion to Brebes had made the price of local onion to drop because the price of the imported onion was lower than that of the local one although in terms of quality onion produced in Brebes is better.
"Farmers sincerely hoped that the President would stop the import of onion so that farmers in Brebes could have better welfare," he said.
In response President Yudhoyono said he would ask the minister concerned to regulate the distribution of imported onion as well as fruits.
"The price of local red onion has now been stable at Rp6,500 per kilogram. It is hoped farmers could enjoy the profit with the abundant harvest and standard price," he said.
He said price of red onion should be able to give profit to farmers but at the same time not burden consumers.
President Yudhoyono said the government would continue increasing the budget for agriculture for use in increasing agricultural production.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
