KONTAN.CO.ID - SEMARANG. Trade Minister (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan conducted a review of rice supplies at the New Bulu Market in Semarang, on Tuesday (20/2). 

On that occasion, market traders complained about the scarcity and high price of premium rice to Mendag. 

A rice trader at the New Bulu Market, Siti complained that premium rice has started to become scarce in the market for the last two weeks. She also said that traders are now starting to have difficulty finding stock from rice distributors. 

"It's been two weeks since the goods ran out," Siti complained to Mendag when met at her stall. 

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According to her, this scarcity has also driven up the price of premium rice to Rp 85,000 per 5 kg or Rp 17,000 per kg. 

"It's hard if it's premium, the goods are not available and now it's already Rp 85,000 per 5 kg," she added. 

A similar thing was also stated by another rice trader, Yuyun. She said that premium rice is now reaching Rp 16,000 per kg. Initially, it was only Rp 13,000 per kg. 

"It has increased for more than a week ten days sir," explained Yuyun, 

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On that occasion, Mendag argued that the increase in rice was due to the absence of a harvest season. So there is a shortage of stock and it causes an increase in the price of local rice. 

For this reason, Mendag asked traders to stock up on SPHP rice because its stock is guaranteed to be sufficient and its price is cheaper. 

"Ma'am, if you buy Bulog rice in large sacks, it can be cheaper by Rp 200 per kg than 5 kg SPHP rice," explained Mendag. 

Based on the price panel of the National Food Agency (Bapanas), Tuesday (20/2) the price of rice has flown beyond the Highest Retail Price (HET). 

Premium rice is now reaching Rp 16,380 per kg, while the HET of premium rice is only around 12,900 to 14,800 per kg. Meanwhile, medium-type rice reaches Rp 14,180 per kg, while its HET is only around Rp 10,900 to 11,800 per kg. 

Editor: Syamsul Azhar