Stocks of basic necessities for fasting month adequate: Indonesian minister

Jakarta, June 21 (Antara) - Indonesian Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel said basic necessity stocks are adequate for the current fasting month of Ramadan and for the post-fasting Lebaran (Indonesia term of Eid al-Fitr) festivities. "Reports I received from from East Java said basic necessity stocks were adequate and prices were stable," the trade minister said when launching the departure of Artha Graha Peduli (AGP), a national private bank, rice market operations in Jakarta on Sunday. He said that he met with the East Java governor who told him that stocks were adequate and prices were stable in East Java. If there were Increases they were still within the reasonable level. "What is important is that basic need stocks are adequate during the fasting month and the Lebaran festivities and the prices are stable," the minister remarked. Gobel said that some prices of commodities in several regions were even going down or going up but these increases did not affect prices as a whole. If there are price increases or decreases there were still within the reasonable limit. He therefore called on the people to not worry about about stocks. "I call on the people to not worry about staple food stock. Apart from stocks of staple food, stock of chili and shallots are adequate as harvests are to be done this June and July. So, if prices now are increasing, they will go down when harvest yields are in stock. The government is paying serious attention to the need of food commodities in the current fasting month, Lebaran and the post-Lebaran period," he added. In the meantime, Internal Trade Director General Srie Agustina said in order to stabilize prices her side had been organizing market operations. "For example, the rice and sugar market operation in Bandung (West Java) was launched recently by President Joko Widodo. We have also been launching market operations in Jakarta like the launching today of the AGP cheap rice and meat operations," she said. She said that the AGP market operations were held in 153 places in Jakarta and the surroundings. The operations have distributed 5,000 tons of rice and 1,000 tons of meat beginning on June 16, 2015. The AGP market operations also distribute medium quality rice with a price of Rp9,000 per kg (or less than US$1) and frozen meat Rp70,000 per kg (about US$5.4).