State-Owned Food Companies Will Stock 70,000 Tons of Minyakita

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Perum Bulog and ID Food are committed to stocking 70,000 tons of Minyakita. This stock will serve as the government's reserve of cooking oil, which will be used to stabilize the stock and price of Minyakita in the market, especially during the Ramadan-Eid 2025 period.

Such a step is necessary considering that it has been almost nine months since the price of Minyakita has not decreased. Its price also tends to remain steadily high above the highest retail price (HET) of Minyakita set by the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) at Rp 15,700 per liter.

Based on the Market Monitoring and Basic Needs System of the Ministry of Trade, as of February 11, 2025, the national average price of Minyakita is IDR 17,300 per liter. Since it began to climb in June 2024, the price of Minyakita has increased by 7.45 percent.

Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi, on Wednesday (12/1/2025), stated that Minyakita is actually not the responsibility of Bapanas, but of the Ministry of Trade. However, the price of Minyakita, which has not decreased for months, needs to be resolved together.

The President has asked Bulog and ID Food to promptly resolve the issue. One way to do this is by strengthening the government's Minyakita reserves, which are sourced from cooking oil producers.

"Bulog is ready to stock 50,000 tons of Minyakita. Likewise, ID Food. Producers of cooking oil are welcome to immediately supply to Bulog and ID Food," he said at the National Coordination Meeting on Stabilizing Supply and Food Prices for Ramadan-Eid 2025 in Jakarta.

The President has asked Bulog and ID Food to promptly resolve the issue. One way to do this is by strengthening the government's Minyakita reserves, which are sourced from cooking oil producers.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the central and regional governments, as well as business actors from various food sectors. Some of them included the Director of Supply Chain and Public Services of Bulog Mokhamad Suyamto, the Director of Supply Chain Management and Information Technology of ID Food Bernadetta Raras, and the Executive Director of the Indonesian Vegetable Oil Industry Association (GIMNI) Sahat Sinaga.

Suyamto stated that Bulog is ready to stock 50,000 tons of Minyakita. This stock will be used to stabilize the supply and price of Minyakita in several regions, including in the eastern part of Indonesia.

"The obstacle so far has been related to mandatory collection (WAPU) and there are no producers supplying Minyakita to Bulog," he said.

Meanwhile, Raras stated that ID Food has a stock of 2,900 tons of cooking oil. ID Food also plans to add 20,000 tons of cooking oil to its stock.

The Ministry of Trade has asked ID Food to work with nine cooking oil producers. Seven of them have committed to supply Minyakita to ID Food.

"From the funding side, we have prepared, namely through interest subsidy-based loans from PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk," he said.

In the meeting, the Head of Bapanas immediately asked GIMNI to supply Minyakita to Bulog and ID Food no later than February 19, 2024. Meanwhile, the Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Iqbal Shoffan Shofwan, stated that there had been WAPU relaxation from the Ministry of Finance.

Violation

Responding to this, Sahat said, GIMNI will encourage its members to supply Minyakita to Bulog and ID Food. On the other hand, GIMNI asked the government to evaluate the export rights multiplier figure for cooking oil producers who supply Minyakita to eastern Indonesia.

"The distribution of Minyakita to these areas is not easy. The logistics costs are also higher, so it needs to be compensated with an additional export rights multiplier," he said.

Sahat also revealed one of the reasons why Minyakita's price is still high. There are still many people who repackage Minyakita into other packaged oils, then sell it at a higher price. The price difference is around Rp 2,000 per liter from Minyakita's HET.

Representative of the Indonesian Market Traders Association Wahyuni also said that the average price of Minyakita in traditional markets is Rp 18,000 per liter. Market traders are forced to sell it at that price because the wholesale price is already high.

"Some distributors even asked us to buy Minyakita in a package with other products," he said.

To address the issue, Arief asked the National Police Food Task Force to take action against practices that are detrimental to consumers. Repackaging Minyakita and purchasing Minyakita in one package with other products are not permitted by the government.