In connection with the scarcity and soaring price of rice in the market, the Industry and Trade Agency (Disperindag) of Malang City held a surprise inspection (sidak) to several rice warehouses in five sub-districts in Malang City. This inspection was held because it was suspected that there was a game, namely hoarding rice in warehouses or rice middlemen.
The first target was at the shop and warehouse of UD. Angger located on Jl. Sunandar Priyo Sudarmo, Blimbing owned by Lilik Subianto. In this warehouse, no rice hoarding was found and even the owner complained because for about three weeks now the rice supply has been very minimal. "Usually in a day there is a shipment of 10 tons and 2-3 tons are sold out. But now it is not like that, and almost all types of rice are experiencing scarcity," said Lilik.
Since the price of rice has increased, he said, his party is afraid to order in large quantities, because it is feared that there will be few buyers. "Here we only sell retail to consumers. The rice we sell includes brands Mentari, Apollo, Menco and Bintang Timur. The market operations carried out by the government in the past few days have not had much of an impact," added Lilik.
When asked why the rice supply is scarce, according to the middle-aged woman, it is because farmers have not harvested or have failed to harvest. "Not only me, several warehouse owners and traders are complaining and experiencing losses when rice is scarce and the price is rising like it is now. We hope the government will immediately resolve this problem," she hoped.
The same thing was also conveyed by an employee of the Parikesit Rice Factory (PB), Eli Tiani, located on Jl. Kolonel Sugiono 16 Gadang. Even when the inspection team, which was also accompanied by the police, came to PB Parikesit, there were no piles of rice found. The team only found neatly arranged rice packages. According to Eli, usually there is a daily shipment of around 1,5 tons of rice.
The inspection team finally moved to the Taruna warehouse which was located not far from PB Parikesit. In this rice warehouse there was quite a lot of rice stock, and coincidentally when the team arrived there was a shipment of rice that had arrived and was in the process of being moved. In this warehouse there were around 50 tons of rice with various brands. However, the management could not confirm the amount of rice and directed the team to come to their administration office on Jl. Martadinata.
Shortly after, the team and dozens of journalists who followed the inspection headed to the administration office. According to the owner of UD Taruna, Budianto, his party serves the rice needs of the people of Malang Raya, and daily sales are between 15-20 tons. "There is no stock of rice in the village. If it is harvested, it is immediately dried, milled, and sold. The last three weeks have been difficult to stock rice," he admitted.
From the results of this inspection, the Head of the Malang City Trade and Industry Agency, Dra. Tri Widyani P., M.Si admitted that she would continue to conduct inspections until the price of rice is stable and there is no shortage. "We will not give up and will conduct inspections to several rice warehouses. We really need information from various parties, so that we can conduct inspections if there is suspicion of rice hoarding," she said. (say/yon)
