TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo officially banned the export of cooking oil and its raw materials starting Thursday, April 28, until an unspecified period. The President came up with the decision and announced it after leading a meeting on people’s needs.

“I’ll continue to monitor and evaluate this policy so that the availability of cooking oil in the country is abundant and at affordable prices,” he said in a press conference broadcast online, Friday, April 22.

Previously, he argued that the soaring prices of cooking oil in Indonesia were attributable to the increased prices in the commodity at global markets. Thus, domestic producers resorted to exports.

The government, however, was still striving to suppress the prices by distributing direct cash assistance or BLT to the community and granting subsidies to producers of bulk cooking oil in order to implement the highest retail price policy.

“We have reviewed that subsidies for producers that have been running for several weeks are not yet effective. At the markets, I see that a lot of bulk cooking oil is not priced in accordance with the predetermined HET. This means there is indeed foul play,” the state head said.

Jokowi further supported efforts taken by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and ordered them to keep investigating the cooking oil mafia case, which had led to the shortage and soaring prices of the commodity in the domestic market.

Read: Labor Party Demands Trade Minister's Resignation over Cooking Oil Fiasco

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH