ayapura, Papua – The Papua Provincial Government (Pemprov) continues to strengthen the supervision of food prices in a number of traditional markets after the National Religious Day (HBKN) Eid al-Fitr 1447 Hijriah. This step is done to maintain price stability while ensuring that the availability of supply remains safe for the community.
The Acting (Plt) Head of the Papua Provincial Food Service, Sri Utami, said that monitoring was carried out routinely in various traditional markets to directly see the price development and food distribution conditions in the field.
“This monitoring is important to ensure that prices remain under control and the distribution of food ingredients runs smoothly, both at the level of traders and consumers,” he said in Jayapura, Saturday.
Based on the latest monitoring results, a number of main commodities are still recorded above the Selling Reference Price (HAP). Among them, the price of shallots ranges from Rp55,000 to Rp60,000 per kilogram, garlic around Rp50,000 per kilogram, and red cayenne pepper which is still quite high at Rp130,000 per kilogram.
According to Sri Utami, the high price of a number of commodities is influenced by limited supply from the main supplier areas such as Surabaya and Makassar. In addition, local production from areas such as Keerom Regency is also not fully able to meet the needs of the market.
He added, his party continues to try to take various strategic steps to suppress price increases, including strengthening coordination with supplier regions and encouraging an increase in local food production.
“The government will continue to be present to ensure that the needs of the community are still met at a reasonable price, especially after the Eid moment which is usually followed by price fluctuations,” he explained.
With intensive monitoring, the Papua Provincial Government hopes that food price stability can be maintained soon, so that people’s purchasing power is maintained and economic activities in traditional markets can run normally.
