When Housewives Scream For Shallot And Garlic

News Focus - WHEN HOUSEWIVES SCREAM FOR SHALLOT AND GARLIC By Ageng Wibowo Jakarta, March 19 (Antara) - Shallots and garlic have been the main ingredients for many of Indonesian cuisines. Almost every dish is served with these famous herbs to enrich the flavor of almost every Indonesian dining table. Lately, the ordinarily famous herbs went scarce in the Indonesian markets, and the price was skyrocketing from Rp20 thousand per kilogram to about Rp60 thousand per kilogram. It even reaches up to Rp100 thousand per kilogram in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Such condition then upsets almost every housewife who usually purchases garlic or shallots in their normal price, such what experienced by Mariani who bought only two cloves of shallots at Rp5.000. "It is very extraordinary that I can only buy two cloves of shallots for Rp5.000, I usually get a lot more than that," she said after purchasing her herbs at local vegetable vendor in her residence. She said that the price of shallots and garlic went crazy lately and it is considered to be rather something unusual. Beside Mariani, street food vendors like the "Warteg" (small restaurants that serves homemade cooking) also overwhelmed about the shallot price hike, they also have to make a hard decision either to cut the herbs use in their dish or raise the food`s price as well. "There`s nothing we can do but to reduce the use of these shallots or increase the food`s price, the price is already expensive from the market. This is insane, how we can gain profit from this situation?" said a Warteg owner in South of Jakarta Rusdi. Allegation of Shallot and Garlic Cartel behind the scarcity The suspicious about the rent-seeking practices and the herbs importer cartel conspiracy then surfaced after tens of illegal garlic containers were found stuck in the ports, and showed cartel conspiracy in the trade as said by the Indonesian Natural Resources Importers Association (Gisimindo) . The association�s chairman Bob Budiman said that the current situation is indicates a cartel conspiracy in the horticultural trade system, those are traders with large capital who tried to control the market. �There are a number of people who possess and control the commodities price,� said Bob Budiman. Bob said that the shallot and garlic trade system needs to be improved, by implementing an open market policy so the small and medium importers can be well informed about the available import quotas. The indication of trade cartel involved behind the shallot and garlic price hike was previously unveiled by the Trade Competition Monitoring Commission (KPPU), which based on the findings of hundreds of detained containers that are not yet distributed to the market. It was reported that there are 332 containers or about 9,686 tonnes of imported garlic from China still sitting in Tanjung Perak port, Surabaya, East Java earlier. The figure is equivalent to six percent of the total import quota for January to June period amounting to 160.000 tons of garlic. Market sudden inspection by legislators The shallot and garlic skyrocketing price then became a major national concern even the country`s legislators had to make a sudden inspection to the markets and finally they check on the ports where the imported commodities are piled in 40 large containers before shipped to regional markets. Nine containers were then suddenly released to be distributed in the wholesale market at Kramat Jati, Jakarta, which made the garlic price decrease as the public demand. The inspection was done after these legislators received words about the existence of some alleged cartels deliberately holds about 300 containers pack with the most wanted herbs so it became scarce in the markets and the price is rocketing due to the high demand but low supply. Members of the House of Representatives Commission IV on agricultural matters, was led by its chairman Romahurmuziy inspected the port on Monday, March 18 and questioned about the "illegal" containers that has no proper documents to be shipped to Jakarta from Belawan Port in Medan, North Sumatra. "These containers were not equipped with proper legal shipping document from the quarantine agency in Belawan Port, but the goods have already arrived in Jakarta`s port," he said. Romahurmuziy also said that such condition must be dealt further in order to stop such "dirty" marketing practice to re-occur in the future and create more upset among Indonesian citizen for their favourite herbs. Three suggested measures to face the herbs scarcity In dealing with such situation, Indonesian chambers of Commerce and Industry then proposed three measures to address the shallot crisis faced by the Indonesian people of late. The first step is that the state logistics agency (Bulog) should take over the shallot trade system while at the same time the supervision of the agency must be intensified, Kadin Chairman Bambang Suryo Sulisto said here Monday. The second step that needs to be taken by the government is to facilitate disbursement of credits or loans to shallot farmers to avoid them from being snared by middlemen and cartels, he said. "The third step of equal importance is to immediately issue a policy on the import of shallot to be distributed by the national logistics agency, so as to neutralize the current market price which is currently controlled by the shallot cartel," Suryo said. Through these three steps, the practices of the cartel that controls the shallot market can be reduced by creating a balance in the market in terms of production (through easy credits for farmers), distribution (through acquisition of the marketing by the agency), and balanced market circulation (through import policy to hold the cartel`s conspiracy), he said. "Of course, this does not mean that the shallot import policy will be open as wide as possible and kill the livelihood of local farmers. Imports will be needed when the market is controlled by the cartels that obstruct shallot circulation," he said. By applying an orderly import policy, the cartel`s attempt to eliminate shallots from the market can be prevented and price volatility can be avoided, he said. Suryo believed the skyrocketing price of shallot which jumps six times as much as the normal price is the result of the cartel of 21 companies that hold more than 50 percent share of the domestic shallot market. "The shallot cartel should be dealt with quickly by the government, so that people are not harmed," he said. He asserted that the government should immediately revamp the shallot trade system for the sake of the people at large and stop the cartel of 21 companies from controlling the market. Hopefully after the whole cartel is revealed and the government made the best decision for this horticulture trade system in Indonesia, housewives and food vendors or restaurant will no longer suffer from shallot and garlic scarcity.