City has enough food stocks

City has enough food stocks

JAKARTA (JP): The city logistics agency will make available an
extra 350,000 tons of rice to anticipate increased demand during
the upcoming Idul Fitri holiday, an official said yesterday.

The head of the agency, Achmad Noor, said the total stock is
enough to feed Jakartans for 20 months based on a demand of 2,250
tons of rice per day.

He added that the price of rice during the fasting month of
Ramadhan will remain relatively stable, especially for the types
of rice controlled by the board.

Achmad said the agency also has sufficient supplies of such
staples as sugar, flour and cooking oil.

The agency's warehouse holds 69,000 tons of sugar and 96,000
tons of flour, enough for three months based on a monthly sugar
demand of 23,000 tons per month and a flour demand of 32,000 tons
per month.

He also said the agency's 90,000 tons of crude palm oil is
enough to cover the city's demand of 500 tons per day.

"Basically, we have filled our warehouses with food staples,"
Achmad said while accompanying several city council members
during a visit to Kramat Jati market in East Jakarta yesterday.

In a related development, the chairman of the council's
commission B for economic affairs, Abdulgani Abdullah, said
yesterday that the board has intensified its efforts to control
the price of chili by distributing two tons of chili per day
directly to 17 markets in the city since Jan. 24.

The first operation, carried out on Jan. 6, only distributed
the chili to the city's central Kramat Jati market, which failed
to control the price, which is normally Rp 9,000 per kilogram.

"The board has supplied a total of 42 tons of chili to the
city's markets since Jan. 6," he said, adding that the price of
chili at the Kramat Jati market has since decreased to 6,500 per
kilogram.

He urged chili sellers not to take advantage of the chili
confusion by overcharging consumers. (yns)