Ahead of Christmas and New Year Eve, Government Ensures Food Availabilities

A joint team from the government, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the police, supervised the supplies ahead of Christmas and New Year, especially to distributors, retail stores, and supermarkets, to prevent expired and damaged food from circulating.

"This supervision is a cooperation involving several parties, such as the BPOM, the Directorate of Special Criminal Investigation of Maluku Police, the Agriculture and Food Crops Service, the Fisheries Service, and the Ambon City Industry and Trade Service," said the Head Industry and Trade Service (Disperindag) of Maluku, Yahya Kotta, Ambon, Saturday, (12/17).

He explained that this joint supervision is to strengthen the supervision that has been already carried out by BPOM ahead of the December 25, 2022 and the New Year Eve.

Yahya added that the supervision that will be carried out for five days. They will supervise all the goods and supplies and prevent the goods that are not fit for consumption for the people.

Then, the joint team will also monitor the price movements of the supplies and goods, particularly the Highest Retail Price (HET), such as cooking oil, not to be sold above IDR 14,000/liter.

In addition, the joint team also monitors the availability of food stocks at the distributor level. The goal is to avoid shortages and price spikes due to distribution disruptions and others.

"Not only ahead of the face of Christmas and New Year did we carry out supervision, but we have been doing it every day. But for this, we have to form a special team to carries out supervision," he explained as quoted from ambon.antaranews.com.

Last week, the joint team found that the price of premium rice had rose from IDR 13,500 to IDR 14,000 per kilogram at the retaiers. Yahya Kotta concluded with a firm message that they will take firm action against those who hoard good, in addition to overseeing the distribution of goods from distributors.