Transparency on Food Prices May Prevent Cartel

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is being asked to be more transparent on food prices as it may help farmers and consumers. Such transparency is also believed to help prevent speculators from playing with prices, analysts say.

"During Harmoko's era as minister of information, onion prices were announced on the radio. Now the information is never announced like that," food observer Bustanul Arifin said in a discussion titled 'Revealing the Food Cartel,' in Jakarta, on Monday, March 25.

Arifin said that announcing prices was one way to prevent "a play of food prices" in the market. With the right information, farmers can determine the time to sell their products and consumers will be able to calculate their purchases better.

What is happening now, Bustanul said, is the domination of food traders, both local distributors and cross-country importers. Their domination in the agricultural product market leaves little to no profit for farmers. And consumers are left with few or no options.

Bustanul noted five agricultural commodities that are vulnerable to cartel practices in Indonesia. Ironically, they are the products the government targeted for self-sufficiency: meat, rice, soybeans, sugar, and corn.

According to him, cartel practices are also triggered by import restrictions. The available quotas are only controlled by a handful of people. This coupled with stagnant domestic production, have created a wide door for price speculations.

PINGIT ARIA