"That is the price that we have to achieve," he said after holding a coordination meeting on food here on Wednesday.
He said the price of beef is still relatively high at around Rp9,800 per kilogram in several regions due to increasing demand from the middle-class.
In connection with that, he called on importers that have received import quotas to immediately meet their obligation to supply premium quality meat.
Hatta said the government meanwhile would continue increasing domestic production and improve distribution from eastern regions to make the price to continue to drop.
"We hope with the additional supply, smoother distribution and acceleration of quota distribution, the price of beef will soon decrease," he said.
He said the Rp76,000 price is the realistic price to protect consumers and farmers and maintain the rate of inflation.
Hatta said it was reported in the meeting that the price of food commodities such as garlic and shallots has started to decline while rice stocks are still sufficient and so the government hoped this month`s inflation would not be high.
"No scarcity of staple foods has happened across the country while the price of most horticultural products has started to drop in the past few weeks," he said.
Reporting by Satyagraha
(H-YH/s012)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
