Small scale food vendors hit hard by rising prices

Small scale food vendors hit hard by rising prices

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The rising price of rice may not affect the middle to upper
income households but it is surely having a major impact on the
poor small-scale rice vendors.

Upi Sobri, 52, said she had to close her business selling nasi
uduk (rice cooked in coconut oil) to school children last week
because she could no longer afford the soaring price of rice.

She now just sits in her rented house in densely-populated
Cipulir, South Jakarta, and occasionally helps her daughter to
wash other people's clothes.

"... It is hard to find kerosene around here and if there is a
supply, the price is too high for me. Now the rice price soars,
too. I simply can't shop for anything," said Upi, who opened her
stall (actually just a desk covered with a plastic sheet) in
front of Grogol Selatan Elementary School.

For a small scale rice vendor like Upi, rice was already
expensive at Rp 2,800 per kilogram but the price has soared to Rp
3,400 per kilogram.

With a capital of less than Rp 150,000, Upi had to spend more
than one third of the capital to buy 10 kilograms of rice daily.
Upi said she used to be able to make Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000 per
day.

"The rising kerosene price was already hard for us, now we
have this (rice price hike)," Suci, another food trader in
Petamburan, West Jakarta, said.

Most of the small traders did not know whether the prices of
either kerosene or rice would return to normal or not in the near
future.

There has yet to be a clear explanation from the government
for the reasons surrounding the rising price of Indonesia's
staple food. Some speculated that the lack of rice and its
subsequent price rise was because harvests had not come yet in
several areas, while the prolonged wet weather meant farmers
could not dry harvested rice. The government had conducted a
series of market operations in several places, but it was not
effective.

Many reported that buyers were reluctant to buy the rice sold
in the market operations due to its poor quality although it was
sold under the market price, at around Rp 2,500 per kilogram.

Retail traders were still willing to buy the poor quality rice
which was later mixed with better quality rice. The price was
later set themselves.

The increasing cost of kerosene had also impacted on traders
who were forced to cook a lesser range of dishes to save on fuel
costs.

Other small-scale food vendors overcame the situation by
reducing rice portions for their customers.

The steps had to be taken because the traders should keep the
price of food low for the poor.

"There is no way for us to also increase the price, we are not
a big restaurant. People will pay the same price but they will
get less," Mantri, a food vendor in Slipi area, said.

Mantri, who sold Padang cuisine, said in the past few days he
only cooked five kinds of dishes at the most.

He said the situation was bad and deteriorating as all prices
were rocketing. "I'm afraid what happened in the 1997 krismon
(economy crisis) will be repeated again now," he said.