The price of chili at the Pasar Manis market in regency of Ciamis continued to soar up it was even higher than the price of chicken which broke through Rp. 40,000 per kilogram, while the price of chicken meat was still settled at Rp. 28,000. Meanwhile the price of red chili in the city of Depok reached Rp. 65,000 per kilogram. In fact the increasing price of red chili had begun since mid July. Somehow in the last 2 days it jumped up from Rp. 35,000 per kilomgram to Rp. 40,000 per kilogram. Similarly the price of green chili rose from Rp. 20,000 to Rp. 22,000 per kilogram. The price of rawit chili rose to Rp. 35,000 per kilogram increasing by Rp. 4,000 against previous price.
Meanwhile the price of other vegetables like cabbage and tomato also rose by Rp. 400 to Rp. 1,000 against previous price. Price of tomato rose to Rp. 5,000 against previous Rp. 4,000. The price of cabbage was between Rp. 3,000 to Rp. 3,500 per kilogram. Jengkol rose from Rp. 22,000 per kilogram to Rp. 24,000 per kilogram.
The condition was different with chicken sellers. The increasing price of chicken which today rose to Rp. 28,000 per kilogram apparently made the number of buyers drop. According to Muksin, 39, a chicken seller, today he slaughtered only 40 chickens per day before price increase, he used to cut at least 50 chickens per day. He disclosed that the price of chicken today was most expensive even compared to the price during the fasing month of 2010. At that time the price of chicken was only Rp. 26,000 per kilogram.
Having triggered inflation in general, the price of red chili in some areas in South Sumatra continued to ascend. In some marketplaces in Palembang the price of chili had reached Rp. 50,000 per kilogram. Similarly in Kayu Agung (84 km from Palembang) since last week the price of chili at the Pasar Pagi Market had reached Rp. 60,000 per kilogram. Similarly in Kota Pagaralam (290 km from Palembang), a place known as vegetable center for South Sumatra, price of chili had come to Rp. 70,000 per kilogram.
Compared to previous week the price of red chili in the markets had skyrocketed to Rp. 70,000. The increasing price of red chili, according to traders was due to limited stock. In case of local red chili, supply was short since farmers were reluctant to grow chili because of foul weather. Even if they persisted to plant, the risk of harvest failure was too high.
Chili was Hard to Get
From Sangata it was reported that since early July scarcity of chili at the Sangata Market, East Kutai, East Kalimantan continued to happen, and this caused to price to soar high. For the past week Chili was hard to find and the price continued to increase.
Observations of market price concluded that certain types of chili were high priced, such as big green chili priced at Rp. 15,000 per kilogram. Furthermore the price of Tiung Chili Rp. 40,000 per kilogram. And big red chili priced at Rp. 44,000 per kilogram. Against the previous Rp. 35,000 per kilogram against previous price of Rp. 24,000 per kilogram.
Four weather that swept over some regions in Indonesia incurred loss on certain farmers business, among others the way it happened in Nganjuk. Tens of hectares of plantations were severely damaged resulting in harvest failure and loss of millions of Rupiahs.
The loss had aggrieved Wagimin, a farmer from the district of Lengkong, who strived hard to fertilize chili, but pest and fungi attached the plant and made things even worse. Failure of harvest also happened in the regency of Nganjuk, where many hectares of chili plantations were damaged. Farmers were hoping that related institutions could at least give their guidance in anticipating damage of chili during long rainy season.
Meanwhile Head of the Horticulture Division of Nganjuk, Ahmad Zakin stated that he had made announcements and illuminatios to farmers in trouble shooting fungi and pest attack on chili. He said that the rainy season was not the right time to plant chili because chili was sensitive to diseases in the rain. Farmers were advised to quickly pour plain water on rain-soaked chili, to protect them from fungi.
Market Operation (OP) run by Government evidently had not been effective in preventing up jumping price of food like sugar, frying oil and flour which seemed anxious to follow the steps of chili. Today the price of Chili skyrocketed to level up with the price of one kilogram of beef. The slow and difficult process of price recovery was because the Government simply left pricing to the mechanism of the market. The Government was unable and unwilling to control price turbulence due to acts of speculators and poor infra structure. This was the conclusion of an economist who was also member of Commission IV of House Herman Khoiron presented Separately in Jakarta sometime ago. Prices had been skyrocketing in a maddening manner year after year. “Because the Government leave pricing entirely to the mechanism of the market, without any effort or intervention”. Hendrawan remarked.
According to Hendrawan, increasing price of food occurred during religious or national festive days until new year’s day, should anticipated beforehand, certainly through certain effective measures. Moreover other factors like poor infrastructure in some regions, market structure, distribution, ware housing and transportation contributed to price fluctuation of food. Therefore, Hendrawan underscored, various obstacles which were the cause of price increase of food commodities should have been overcome.
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