Pramuka Market Traders Complain: Medical Equipment Prices Rise Due to Middle East War

JAKARTA - Several traders attribute the rising prices of medical equipment at Pramuka Market in East Jakarta to the conflict in the Middle East. “From what I know, since the incident in Iran and the fuel price increase due to the war, the price of plastic materials has gone up. So, the surge is quite high,” said one trader at Pramuka Market named Wati (45) when met by Kompas.com at the location on Thursday (14/5/2026). The price increase for medical equipment at Pramuka Market has been occurring for the past month. “It might be due to the difficulty in obtaining rubber raw materials. Because of the war there, imports are challenging,” she said at the location. Almost all medical equipment is imported from other countries. One example is wheelchairs imported from Taiwan. Meanwhile, another trader named Bara (not his real name, 50) also stated that most medical equipment comes from imports, so prices soar when war breaks out. “Most medical equipment products use AKL (Imported Medical Equipment) permits and the majority are indeed imported goods, so almost everything has increased. There’s a price adjustment almost every day with rises of thousands of rupiah,” said Bara at the location. Previously, the selling price of plastic aprons was around Rp85,000 to Rp115,000. However, now the traders’ capital cost alone reaches Rp115,000 per box, so the market selling price is around Rp125,000.