REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman has claimed that the prices of a number of commodities were lower in June 2016 than what these were in the same month of 2015.

The minister told the House Commission IV on agriculture affairs on Wednesday that commodities whose prices were lower this year included RI 42 rice, red curly chili, large red chili, red cayenne pepper, green chili and wheat.

"The lowest prices are recorded in case of red cayenne pepper that went down 28.44 percent, red curly chili 26.88 percent and IR 42 rice 15.8 percent," the minister informed.

However, at the same time, prices of other commodities increased, such as IR I, II rice types, Muncul I rice, rice of equivalent premium quality, cooking oil, shallots, garlic, chickens, chicken eggs, sugar and beef.

The increase was highest in case of garlic whose price rose 61.24 percent, while sugar prices went up by 36.9 percent and chicken by 34.62 percent.

Compared with commodity prices during the fasting month in 2015, food commodity prices fell, with the maximum 49.92 percent fall being in case of cayenne pepper, while red chili prices came down by 24.12 percent and cooking oil by 16.56 percent.

"Prices rose in case of rice, sugar, eggs, shallots and garlic. The highest increase was recorded for garlic at 78.25 percent, shallots at 57.32 percent while sugar prices rose by 14.67 percent," he said.

In order to bring down prices, the agriculture ministry took a number of steps, including launching bazaars at Jakarta markets and organizing market operations through farming shops (TTI) where food commodities were offered at low prices.

During market operations, the TTI shops offered beef at Rp80 thousand per kilogram (kg), shallots at Rp23 thousand, cooking oil at Rp9,500 per kg, chicken at Rp30 thousand per kg, sugar at Rp12 thousand per kg, garlic at Rp22 thousand per kg, rice 7,900 per kg, and red chili at Rp16 thousand per kg.

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