0 Prices soar as Nyepi looms

The prices for daily commodities and the fresh produce required in Balinese Hindu rituals are soaring as the celebration of the Saka lunar new year, locally known as Nyepi, gets closer. Nyepi will fall on March 12. In markets across Denpasar, the price of shallots skyrocke-ted to Rp 40,000 (US$4.12) per kilogram. This commodity is sold for Rp 12,000 per kg on normal days. “I am perplexed by the soaring prices. 

I know that it is the simple result of the supply and demand dynamic, yet, I never expected that the increase would be so drastic,” Ni Luh Ayu, who runs a small fresh produce shop, said. The increase, she admitted, had cut deeply into her shop’s profit margin. “We need to spend more to stock a similar amount of produce, while at the same time many of my customers reduce the amount they purchase in order to adapt to the rising prices.” 

“Unfortunately, I am dealing with perishable goods here, goods with a very short shelf life. If I can’t sell them all immediately, the fruit will rot and I will lose a lot.” Provincial Trade Agency senior official IB Gede Ardana said the prices were driven upward by increasing demand in the period prior to Nyepi. On the day before Nyepi, Balinese Hindus will organize an island-wide annual cleansing and purification ritual at provincial, regency, district, village, hamlet and household level. 

These rituals require a huge amount of fresh produce, such as flowers, young coconut leaves, coconuts, fruit and sacrificial fowl, as well as other commodities such as fabric and incense. Bad weather has also influenced the market dynamics. “Spices are shipped from Java and bad weather had slowed down shipping, thus, reducing the supply reaching the island,” he said, adding that the hike in electricity prices and the planned increase in oil prices might also have pushed prices further upward. Ardana stated that the island would not experience a shortage of basic commodities. 

“The main problem here is the fact that the island heavily depends on supplies from Java,” he said, adding that such a dependency made the commodity prices on the island fluctuate a lot. Agency data showed that out of nine basic commodities, only three — rice, beef and fowl — could still be produced on the island at a significant level. “The island has an increasing need for rice. The most recent data shows demand is at 46,000 tons per month, while the island could only produce up to 45,000 tons per month.”

source : bali daily