Price Of Seaweed Surging In Bandarlampung

Bandarlampung, Jan 18 (ANTARA) - The price of seaweed shot up in this Lampung provincial city on scarcity of supply from farmers and dwindling stocks held by traders. "Currently the price of dry seaweed is as high as Rp34,000 per kilogram , up from normal levels of Rp18.000-Rp22,000 per kg," a trader Teti said at the market of Pasar Tengah, here on Friday. Teti said the price for wet seaweed rose to Rp14,000 pr kg from normally Rp8,000. She blamed bad weather with stormy rains for the scarcity of supply, forcing farmers to raise selling price to help offset loss in income. "Farmers have put up a high price forcing us to raise our selling price to earn a slight profit margin," Tati said. Many seaweed growers suffered harvest failure because of angry sea under bad weather, she added. "Buyers prefer dry seaweed as it is more durable and could be kept in stock for a long time," she said. She said in rainy season demand for seaweed normally weak, but in dry season demand would surge. Supplies of seaweed come mainly from the regencies of Pesawaran and Lampung Selatan, the production centers for the commodity in the province of Lampung. Jaka, another seaweed trader, said the price of the commodity has increased over the past several days because of scarcity in supply and transport difficulty which caused increase in production cost. "It is not easy for retailer like me to set a price as consumers are sensitive to price hike," he said. He said consumers complained about the increase in price "although we take only a narrow margin." Seaweed growers also complained bout harvest failure. "Bad weather caused big loss reaching tens of millions of rupiah," Asep, one of the farmers said, adding "I understand that retailers complained about the high price we put up."