The Jakarta Post, January 18, 2006
Rice shortages in Ambon markets push up prices
M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon, Maluku
An acute rice shortage in Ambon's city markets over the last few days has pushed
prices up to Rp 6,000 (about 60 U.S. cent) per kilogram, prompting the provincial
commodity regulating agency to sell rice from its stocks at lower prices Tuesday.
Rice t! rader Daeng Amirullah said he put up his prices because of a combination of
higher demand and a lack of fresh supplies form the commodities agency.
"Currently, we are only selling rice from Makassar and Surabaya," the trader in the
city's Mardika market said Tuesday.
Rising rice prices have become a burden for housewives, including 37-year-old
Aminah, a resident of the Batumerah neighborhood.
"Rice has become so expensive that poor people like me, who do not have much
money, cannot possibly buy rice," complained the woman, whose husband is a
low-ranking employee at the Maluku governor's office.
Though there is an absence of rice from the local commodity regulating agency in the
markets, the province reportedly has at least 11,000 tons of rice, sufficient for six
months, sitting in the agency's warehouses. The province will procure and additional
9,000 tons, including 6,000 tons of imported rice, on Jan.! 25.
The commodity agency head in Maluku, Hermawan Agus Machmud, said his office
was not to blame for the absence of the agency's rice in the markets, since the move
was intended to help local rice farmers from Seram and Buru islands.
He said if the agency sold rice to market traders (at below market prices), locally
grown rice would be hard to sell because its quality is still below that of rice coming
from outside the province.
The agency, he said, still had more than enough rice in its warehouses. "But we want
local rice to sell out before distributing our rice to the market," Hermawan said
Tuesday.
He said the agency had allocated Rp 15 billion to purchase rice from local farmers. Of
that amount, only Rp 3 billion has been spent thus far due to low rice production.
Ambon city's some 300,000 residents require approximately 2,000 tons of rice each
month, which cannot be met by local! rice producers from the province's two main
islands, Buru and Seram.
But bending to people's demand, the agency conducted an operation in Mardika
market Tuesday, selling five tons at below-market price (Rp 3,900 per kilogram).
However, many residents still found the rice to be too expensive. After the operation
was over, about 20 percent of the agency rice had not been sold.
Also on Tuesday, the Batumerah subdistrict office began selling subsidized rice to
people with poverty cards at Rp 1,000 per kilo.
Each registered family was allowed to buy a maximum of 15 kilograms of rice, five
kilograms less than the nationwide program calls for, apparently due to the greater
number of families entitled to subsidized rice in Ambon.
In response to climbing rice prices, the Maluku provincial administration plans to set a
ceiling price of Rp 3,900 per kilogram for Ambon city. That price will be ! a little higher
in outlying areas due to transportation costs.
The plan was disclosed to The Jakarta Post by the head of the province's trade and
industry office, Burhanudin Bandjar, who said the decision had been made following
the increase of rice prices in rice-producing areas like Surabaya and Makassar.
Higher rice prices, he said, would have a positive impact on local farmers, considering
the government's set price for rice of Rp 3,550 per kilogram had been increased to Rp
4,500 a kilo.
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