Indonesia's garlic import quota monopoly causes prices to soar

2025 Indonesia's established garlic importers were not given import quotas, and they had to buy import quotas from shell companies allegedly controlled by a few privileged importers at an additional cost of 7,000 to 8,000 rupiah per kilogram.For example, Jaya Sartika, a member of Pusbarindo, and Herry Thio, an importer with 25 years of experience, both applied for RIPH on January 8 but were rejected on the grounds that the quota was full. About 300 business participants who applied for RIPH were not approved. Five long-time importers said that the buying and selling of licenses by privileged importers had caused the price of garlic to soar in the market. One veteran importer calculated that the practice of buying and selling import quotas cost the community 3.85 trillion rupiah annually. The total cost of garlic imported from China plus transportation costs for importers is 25,198 dong per kilogram, while they price it at 33,500 dong per kilogram, higher than the market reference price of 32,000 dong set by the government, which some argue should be lower than 25,000 dong per kilogram, with the public forced to pay for some of it.