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KOMPAS.com – Indonesian Consumers Foundation (UPPER) is raising a petition from change.org related to the scarcity of cooking oil and the soaring price in recent times.
Since it was opened on February 3 last, until today the petition has been signed by thousands of people. After receiving sufficient support, YLKI will send the data from the petition to the head of the KPPU.
Quoted from Compass TVSunday (2/13/2022), YLKI Chairman Tulus Abadi said four reasons his party held the petition online the. Everything leads to an anomaly, namely the height cooking oil price in the world’s largest palm oil producing country.
“First, the scarcity and soaring cooking oil is not a downstream issue, but an upstream issue,” Tulus said in his statement.
Also read: Ready to Follow Cooking Oil, Tempe Tofu Prices Are Expected to Rise
According to him, the downstream government’s efforts, such as providing subsidies through oil producers, are considered inappropriate.
Evidently, the amount of state money that is not enough to mean much in making price reductions in the field. What happens is that there is often a shortage of cooking oil.
YLKI, he said, was worried that what the government was doing in overcoming the polemic over the stock and cooking oil prices, which only dwelled on downstream issues, would not solve the existing problems.
“And it has been proven that until now what the government has initiated has not yielded any results,” he said.
Also read: The irony of a country rich in palm oil, its people queue for hours for cooking oil
The second reason is to encourage the acceleration of investigations into alleged cartels and forms of unfair competition in cooking oil by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU).
“We see that KPPU has tried to sniff out the existence of the alleged cartel. However, KPPU does not yet have trigger strong (trigger) dismantling the alleged practice cooking oil cartel,” he explained.
“After we petitioned, we actually read in the media that the KPPU then took action to summon business actors suspected of carrying out the cartel practices,” added Tulus.
Third, to show the government that the downstream policies that have been implemented are not appropriate.
Fourth, to involve the public as consumers of cooking oil in encouraging policy changes or policy change.
Also read: Several Promises of the Minister of Trade and the Reality of Still High Prices of Cooking Oil
“This change without involving the public is a less powerful effort, so we launched an online petition to create public intelligence on public issues such as cooking oil,” he said.
YLKI’s suspicions
Tulus Abadi admitted that he could not understand the skyrocketing price of cooking oil in the largest palm oil producing country in the world.
He said, cooking oil is a derivative product of palm oil (CPO) which is a domestic product. But oddly enough, it is sold to the domestic community at a global price benchmark.
“We are the largest producer of CPO, we are exporters not importers, so we can determine domestic CPO prices. Not international prices for national ones,” Tulus said in his short message.
Selling cooking oil at a high price in the country would injure consumers. Given the truth, large companies also plant their oil palm on state land through a Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) scheme.
Also read: Cooking Oil Producers Say They Are Confused by Government Regulations
State land granted to private palm oil entrepreneurs through HGU itself is a manifestation of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, in which the earth and all natural resources in it must be used for the prosperity of the community.
On the other hand, the government also helps palm oil entrepreneurs a lot by helping to buy CPO for biodiesel needs. The government even helps private palm oil entrepreneurs by disbursing large biodiesel subsidies through the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS).
When world palm oil prices rise, big players in cooking oil producers should not sell their products at high prices that burden the community.
Screenshot of the video uploaded on Facebook regarding mothers scrambling to buy cooking oil in Pringsewu.-
The question of price increases due to the number of cooking oil factories that are not integrated or do not have palm oil plantations also does not make sense.
This is because almost all major players in cooking oil producers also control oil palm plantations. Cooking oil produced by big players also jumped.
Also read: Producers Explain Causes of Scarcity of Cooking Oil in Palm Rich Countries
“I suspect that there are cartel or oligopoly practices. In the Law on the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition,” Tulus said.
The cartel itself refers to a group of producers who dominate the market who cooperate with each other to increase profits as much as possible by increasing prices, so that in the end, consumers are the losers.
The alleged cooking oil cartel case in 2009
Allegations of cartels in oil are not new in Indonesia. Quoted from Kontan’s news on June 4, 2009, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) suspects the practice of cooking oil cartels in the Indonesian market.
At that time, KPPU’s Director of Communications, Ahmad Junaidi, emphasized that KPPU was now starting to investigate and was collecting data to prove his suspicions.
Also read: Government Explains Reasons for Cooking Oil Prices Haven’t Dropped yet
KPPU deserves to suspect that there is a cartel. This is because the price of local cooking oil is difficult to come down and seems unrelated to the price of palm oil which is the main raw material.
“We continue to monitor,” said Junaidi at the time.
Since last May, the price of bulk cooking oil in the market has remained in the range of Rp. 10,000 per kilogram. The Business Competition Supervisory Commission or KPPU suspects that there is a cartel by eight companies.
The big companies are Bukit Kapur Mutual Group, Musimmas Group, Sinarmas Group, Sungai Budi Group, PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) I to IV, Berlian Eka Sakti, Raja Garuda Mas, and Salim Group.
Illustration of the largest oil palm plantation in Indonesia. The largest oil palm plantations in Indonesia are located on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.-
Also read: Because of Government Subsidy, Cooking Oil Is Now Missing from Minimarket Shelves
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