Cashew group calls to monopoly rights
Cashew group calls to monopoly rights
MAUMERE, Flores (JP): The Inter-Island Traders Association has
protested the East Nusa Tenggara governor's decision to grant PT
Sekar Alam monopoly rights over cashew trading in Sikka district.
The association's district chapter head M. Barono told The
Jakarta Post here Saturday that the blunt decision could spark
protest as the monopoly would likely reduce cashew prices in the
district.
"If cashew prices go down because of the monopoly, farmers
would surely become frustrated. And this could lead to social
unrest, which could undermine economic and political stability in
the whole province," Barono warned.
He called on Governor Herman Musakabe to withdraw his decree
which appointed PT Sekar Alam as the only cashew trader in Sikka
district and allow the existing traders to operate.
In a decree, dated July 31, Musakabe ordered Sikka district
head Alex Idong to facilitate PT Sekar Alam as the only cashew
trader in the district to ensure cashew supply for its cashew
processing plant.
The governor also told the district head to direct the
existing cashew traders to trade other commodities.
Barono said the current free trading on cashews has been
running well, with village cooperatives the main players.
The planned cashew trading monopoly would likely destroy the
current pricing system, which has been accepted by farmers,
Barono said.
He warned that people were already enraged by the clove
monopoly, which had forced them to cut down their clove trees and
replace them with other hard-crop plantations, including cashew
trees.
"That policy would only inflict losses to farmers. I'm afraid
farmers would again cut down their cashew trees like what they
did with their clove trees," Barono said.
Last year, the government launched a massive clove conversion
program, cutting down clove trees and replacing them with other
crops to reduce clove oversupply.
But earlier last month, the government halted the clove
conversion program because of increasing demand.
Clove trading has been monopolized by the Stock Management
Agency, chaired by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo
Mandala Putra, since 1991.
Barono said cashew traders' objection to the planned monopoly
had been presented to the Sikka district head and the governor
through letters.
Sikka district head Alex Idong said Saturday he had listened
to cashew traders' concerns and would pass them on to the
governor. (yac/rid)