Pekanbaru Government Ensures Stable Food Prices

The Pekanbaru City Government, through its Food Price Clean-up Team (Saber) under the Food Security Service, has conducted monitoring of the availability and prices of strategic food commodities at Arengka Morning Market in Pekanbaru City. From the team’s observations, the prices of a number of strategic food commodities in Pekanbaru City remain relatively stable. Likewise, stock and availability have so far shown no commodity suffering from scarcity. In fact, the prices of several commodities have experienced a significant decline compared to a week ago. Secretary of the Pekanbaru City Food Security Service, Adrizal, stated that overall, food commodity prices in Pekanbaru are stable. There has been no significant price spike. Several commodities have even seen declines, such as chicken eggs and chicken meat. He explained that the price of chicken eggs ranges from Rp44,000 to Rp48,000 per tray. ‘For grade A, or large size, the monitored price per tray is Rp48,000. Meanwhile, for grade B it is Rp46,000 and grade C Rp44,000 per tray,’ said Adrizal on Thursday (11/6). Similarly to eggs, the price of slaughtered chicken has also dropped quite significantly. From the previous price of around Rp29,000 per kilogram, it has now fallen to Rp26,000 per kilogram. ‘In fact, for jumbo-sized ones, it is estimated to reach Rp25,000 per kilogram,’ he added. Besides eggs and chicken, the price of red chilli is also monitored as stable and has slightly decreased. Whereas during Eid al-Adha red chilli briefly reached Rp60,000 per kilogram, it currently stands at around Rp50,000 per kilogram. Medan red chilli ranges from Rp40,000 to Rp45,000 per kilogram. The only food commodity price experiencing a surge is garlic, which has jumped sharply to Rp39,000-Rp40,000 per kilogram. Previously, garlic prices were in the range of Rp30,000 to Rp35,000 per kilogram. ‘Possibly due to the rupiah exchange rate factor. As is known, we still import the majority of our garlic from abroad,’ he explained. As for other commodities such as rice, sugar and cooking oil, prices remain relatively stable. ‘Rice prices are still stable. The government is also continuing to distribute SPHP rice at SP2HP markets,’ he said. In addition, the availability of cooking oil is abundant. ‘However, for MinyaKita, from the stalls we sampled today, the stock available was only for the 2-kilogram MinyaKita size,’ he added. Accompanied by Bulog, he explained that the supply for 1-litre MinyaKita is actually adequate. However, given the high demand, stocks at market stalls are not very plentiful for the 1-litre size. He stressed that the implementation of monitoring by the Food Price Clean-up Team, consisting of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Pekanbaru City Police, the Pekanbaru District Attorney’s Office, the TNI, the Trade and Industry Service, the Food Security Service and the Agriculture Service, is aimed at ensuring all food commodities are sufficient in Pekanbaru City and that no one manipulates prices within the community. ‘We also urge all citizens to shop as needed and not be influenced by provocations about price spikes leading to panic buying. No one is allowed to play around with food commodity prices, especially those where the government has set a Maximum Retail Price,’ he concluded.