Starfruit (malangkota.go.id) – To maintain the stability of food supply and prices, the Malang City Food Security and Agriculture Service (Dispangtan) in collaboration with the National Food Agency, BI Malang, Bulog, Perumda Tugu Aneka Usaha, and other related parties again held the Cheap Food Movement (GPM) in the yard of the Lowokwaru District Office, Malang City, Monday (11/11/2024).
Head of the Food Security Division of the Malang City Agriculture and Food Security Agency, Elfiatur Roikhah, when contacted via his cellphone after the activity, said that the GPM was held in anticipation of Christmas and New Year (Nataru) and at the request of the National Food Agency (Bapanas) to anticipate price increases and food availability for the community.
GPM is held to fulfill the availability of quality food for the community at affordable prices. "We plan to hold this independent GPM 20 times with transportation assistance from Bank Indonesia Malang in its implementation. Then for suppliers and personnel, we ask for assistance from Perumda Tunas, ID Food, and several food ingredients from the Farmers' Group Association (Gapoktan)," he explained.
Elfiatur further said, at the end of the year approaching Nataru, there are indeed several food ingredients that usually experience price increases. First, because demand is quite high ahead of the celebration of religious holidays, namely Christmas and New Year.
"Then related to the weather, it is currently the rainy season, so there are several basic commodities whose supply is reduced. Like chili, the price is still below the reference production price. Tomatoes have started to rise and rice because it is not the harvest season yet," said Elfiatur.
He said that these commodities do need to be anticipated. "So for this GPM, the focus is on commodities such as rice, cooking oil, sugar, chicken eggs, and chicken meat. In this GPM, packaged cooking oil is sold for IDR 17.000, Minyakita for IDR 15.700, 5 kg packaged rice is sold between IDR 67.600 and IDR 70.000 depending on the quality, and granulated sugar per kilogram is sold for IDR 16.500. When compared to market prices, these prices are cheaper by IDR 1.000 to IDR 3.000," concluded Alfiatur. (say/yon)
