Sugar and wheat flour prices begin to stabilize
Sugar and wheat flour prices begin to stabilize
JAKARTA (JP): Prices of sugar and wheat flour have begun to
stabilize due to a sharp fall in demand since last month, a
distributor has said.
Ishadi, the chairman of the Federation of the Associations of
Sugar and Wheat Flour Distributors (Gapegti), said yesterday that
wholesale trading had been very sluggish over the past few weeks
despite the fall in prices.
He said sugar demand had declined over 25 percent since early
February, while wheat flour demand had dropped 50 percent.
He attributed the falling demand to declining consumption.
"Consumers may have cut their consumption of sugar and wheat
flour in a bid to cut spending," said Ishadi.
In January, sugar prices climbed to Rp 2,000 per kilogram
(kg), while wheat flour reached Rp 1,500 per kg.
He said Gapegti had been selling sugar at Rp 1,400 per kg at
its warehouses, Rp 1,450 per kg in the market and Rp 1,600 per kg
to retailers since February.
Over the same period, Gapegti sold wheat flour at Rp 21,500
per 25-kg bag at its warehouses, while at Rp 21,525 in the
market. The current wheat flour retail price is Rp 1,000 per kg.
Ishadi claimed the association's market intervention had also
contributed to the fall in the commodities' prices.
Gapegti, the trading arm of the State Logistics Agency
(Bulog), carried out a massive market intervention in January to
ease rising prices of the two commodities.
Bulog previously monopolized the import and distribution of
important commodities such as rice, sugar, wheat and soybeans but
was obliged to relinquish the privileges from Feb. 2, except for
rice, as part of the International Monetary Fund's reform program
for the country.
Bulog's chief, Beddu Amang, said last week that his agency
would continue to import wheat and wheat flour until private
companies were able to procure and sell the commodities on the
domestic market.
Beddu said the import activities were essential to ensure
price stability, citing that the sharp fall in the rupiah's value
against the U.S dollar had tripled the price of imported
commodities such as sugar and wheat flour.
He promised that his agency would not increase its sugar and
wheat flour prices until May.
The head of Bulog's public relations department, Masykur
Sulaiman, said separately that the agency had purchased 2 million
tons of imported unhusked rice since January, 900,000 tons of
which had already been unloaded at seaports across the country.
He said the agency would import 768,384 tons of unhusked rice
in March alone.
Beddu said last month that the agency would import 1.1 million
tons of sugar, 4.25 million tons of wheat and 3.3 million tons of
rice this fiscal year to meet domestic demand.
He said Bulog's rice stocks would not dip below 1.7 million
tons before April. (gis)