Food inflation in Indonesia has quieted expectations of a price relief during Ramadan until at least Eid al-Fitr.

A lengthy dry season in 2023 cut local production and overshadowed a time when the country’s 231 million Muslims fast.

Indonesia’s news site, Kompas, reported on March 18 rising prices of kitchen staples such as garlic, pepper, sugar and vegetable oil.

Arguably, the hardest hit food is chicken, whose cost hiked to 38,900 rupiah ($2.47) a kg, a 3.18% rise. Farm gate eggs also fell victim to soaring prices, appreciating by 2.75%, to sell at 31,550 rupiah ($2) a kg. 

Price of Rice Cools

On the other end of the scale is rice, whose indispensability has helped lower its price  from February 2024 highs.

This fall in the cost of rice is, however, only marginal for the grain is still costly at 14,500 rupiah ($0.92) per kg. Its usual minimum cost during better days is around 13, 283 ($0.84) rupiah per kg.

Well-milled rice, on the other hand, rose to 16,000 rupiah ($1.02) a kg in mid-March, a 10% appreciation.

Analysts blame the cost appreciation in the staple grain for overall consumer inflation. This insight is significant as rice is the main diet of Indonesia, a country that ranks third in global rice production. 

Since the early 2000s, rice price stabilization has become an important national policy and is now the mandate of Bulog. This is a state corporation that decides on the supply and price controls of the cereal. Whenever demand exceeds supply, Bulog decides on the extra amount to import, without saturating the market with cheap grain. 

National Inflation at 0.37%

It is not just rice, however that is worsening the price situation in Indonesia during this holiday season. Indeed, beverages, tobacco and extra food items contributed 0.29% to the national inflation that stood at 0.37% in February 2024.

During February, rice led inflation at 0.21%, with red chili, eggs, chicken meat following at 0.09%, 0.04% and 0.02% respectively. 

Indonesia’s poor suffer the blunt of inflated prices, given that food eats up 60% of their budgets or more during volatility. Indonesia also ranks as the fourth nation in Asia whose yearly inflation has been growing at 6.18% ending December 2023.

All in all, the government said at the start of Ramadan that it would rein in food prices. This may happen sometime in the course of the fasting season which ends on April 9, on Eid.