Supply of vegetables, rice disrupted due to flooding

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The supply of vegetables, fruit and staple food to the city has been disrupted in the past few days since floods hit several parts of Central and East Java, vendors said on Saturday.

A number of vendors in three main traditional markets in Kramatjati, Cipinang and Jatinegara separately told Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih, who visited the places, that they had received fewer supplies.

This was not only due to floods, which hampered transportation, but also because the plantations had been inundated due to heavy rain, Antara reported.

"In the past few days, we received fewer vegetables, especially red chilies and onions," Rasyid, who sold vegetables in Kramat Jati, said.

Aside from the transportation problem, water had inundated the land where the chilies and onions were grown in Brebes, Central Java, he added.

Rasyid also alleged that a part of the supply, which should have been transported to Jakarta, might have been sent to other areas like Medan. This happened because the onion suppliers in Sumatra, which was supposed to serve Medan, were facing similar problems.

Disruption to the supply of vegetables has reportedly caused sharp increases in the price of some commodities.

A housemaid in Bintaro, south of Jakarta, however, said that prices were still stable.

"I bought some vegetables this morning, and the prices were the same," she said.

Meanwhile, head of Cipinang market Nasion Baktiono said that normally, the city received between 1,800 tons to 2,200 tons of rice per day, but this month the daily supply had dropped by 20 percent.

He speculated that there might be some traders hoarding rice as they would not sell it until Idul Fitri drew close, when prices usually rose.

During the fasting month, the price of foodstuffs usually increases because there is more demand -- either for buyers' own consumption or for distribution to the poor.

Saragih called upon the public not to worry because there was still a sufficient supply of rice, sugar, cooking oil and other kinds of stable food.

From October to December this year, there would be 8.4 tons of locally produced rice, he said. In addition, the Logistics Depot still had 1.4 tons in stock, while another 4 tons were in the market.

As for cooking oil, in the past three months production had reached 1.7 tons, far more than the amount people needed, which was only 0.7 ton, Saragih said.