Indonesia's Chili Prices Keep Rising: Where Are the Production Centers?

In recent days, the price of chili peppers has continued to soar. This is happening as the Christmas and New Year celebrations draw closer.

Quoting data from the National Strategic Food Price Information Center (PIHPS), the average price of chili peppers in traditional markets reached Rp50,050 per kilogram on Wednesday (7/12/2022). The average price on the previous Wednesday (30/11/2022) was still Rp44,650 per kilogram.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), East Java is the largest chili pepper producing region in Indonesia.

Throughout 2021, East Java produced 578,883 tons of chili peppers, or 41.75% of the total national chili pepper production. Central Java ranked second with a chili pepper production of 179,287 tons.

Meanwhile, DKI Jakarta had the lowest chili pepper production, only 1 ton throughout last year. Following that is the Riau Islands with a production of 1,627 tons.

The following is a list of the 10 provinces with the largest national chili pepper production in 2021:

1. East Java: 578,883 tons
2. Central Java: 179,287 tons
3. West Java: 137,456 tons
4. North Sumatra: 78,663 tons
5. West Nusa Tenggara: 62,539 tons
6. Aceh: 51,686 tons
7. West Sumatra: 35,118 tons
8. Bali: 29,175 tons
9. South Sulawesi: 26,423 tons
10. Central Sulawesi: 22,199 tons

Overall, the volume of chili pepper production across Indonesia reached 1.39 million tons in 2021. This figure is down 8.09% from the previous year's production (year-on-year/yoy), which was 1.5 million tons.