Garlic in the Beginning of 2020.

ICC held a journalist forum to convey the development with regard to the realization of the commodity of garlic in the beginning of 2020. In addition to the above, in respect of law enforcement efforts, several cases at the moment are entering new developments, among other things, tender relating to the so-called Monas area arrangement construction, Netflix blocking, and payment of parking rate services managed by PT Sky Parking Utama. Such various developments were conveyed by Guntur Saragih (ICC Member) together with Taufik Ariyanto (Deputy of Assessment and Advocacy), and Gopprera Panggabean (Director of Investigation) on Thursday (13/2).

The price of garlic in DKI Jakarta was still below IDR40,000 (forty thousand rupiah) per kg on January 2, 2020. Meanwhile, the price skyrocketed to IDR70,000 (seventy thousand rupiah) per kg on February 12, 2020. Similarly, the same took place in several regions in Indonesia such as in North Sumatra, Central Java, Lampung, and some other regions.

With regard to the increase in the price of the garlic, ICC rates that this does not have anything to do with the Corona Virus outbreak in China, hence, the process of garlic imports is disrupted. This increase often happens repeatedly every year especially in the first quarter. The issuance of the Horticulture Product Import Recommendation (RIPH) and Import License (SPI) is usually accompanied by the scarcity of the supply of garlic that will subsequently result in the increase of the price. On the eve of April up to June, the price of garlic will go down again. This sort of condition always transpires every year.

ICC has previously conveyed recommendations and considerations to the Government with regard to the importation of garlic resulting in a change in the policy, namely that beforehand obligatory planting was conducted in the beginning and was then followed by the issuance of Import License (SPI), to become on the other way round, namely the Import License (SPI) is issued first and then comes the obligatory planting and verification thereafter (as set forth in Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture Number 39 Year 2019).

As a note, the needs for edible garlic supply per month reach 40,000 tons to 50,000 tons, wherein 95% is imported from China. In respect of the high cost of garlic in Indonesia at the moment, there is another conjecture, namely more to the garlic shipment process in China is hindered because port access in China is hard to penetrate as a result of the stop of the transportation services in China, hence, resulting in the scarcity of the supply.

Furthermore, ICC will immediately hold a Focus Group Discussion with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade in respect of the increase of the price of garlic taking place at the moment. ICC will also continuously spur so that the Government does not take a discriminatory stance and does grant import license to any party whomsoever that has really met the requirements, or in other words, that the realization of imports may not be restrained for this constitutes a regular need.