The House of Representatives (DPR) RI has once again questioned the sustainability of the Red and White Village/Urban Community Cooperative (KDKMP) in supporting its operational costs independently. Lawmakers are concerned that this program, which consumes a significant amount of the state budget, risks collapsing due to a business model deemed immature and uncompetitive in the field.

This sharp criticism surfaced during a working meeting between Commission VI of the DPR RI and the Ministry of Cooperatives in Jakarta. A number of council members grilled the government on the effectiveness of managing KDKMP units, which were reported to produce razor-thin profits. One case triggering public controversy involved a cooperative unit capitalized at Rp3 billion that reportedly managed to record a net profit of only Rp78,000.

Member of Commission VI of the DPR RI, Darmadi Durianto, assessed that KDKMP's reliance on selling subsidized commodities such as fertilizer and 3 kg LPG canisters makes profit margins extremely small. Moreover, the cooperative's status, serving merely as a distribution sub-base, is deemed insufficient to cover monthly operational costs estimated at Rp50 million to Rp100 million per unit.

In addition to profitability issues, the transparency of goods procurement also came under scrutiny. DPR members questioned a procurement project for 1.8 million fan units with a fantastic budget value of Rp1.8 trillion. This budget was considered suspicious because, on average, the price per unit reaches Rp1 million, far above the market price which generally ranges around Rp300,000.

Another criticism came from IPB University rural observer Ivanovich Agusta, who highlighted the lack of space for local village commodities in KDKMP outlets. Reality on the ground shows that cooperative shelves are instead dominated by state-owned enterprise (SOE) and large corporate products due to a centralized product management system under the control of PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara. This is seen as steering the cooperative away from its original function as an absorber of local farmers' produce.

Responding to these concerns, Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono explained that KDKMP is designed for the long term and is not limited to retail business alone, but also includes logistics services, pharmacies, and savings and loan units. Regarding the controversy over large-scale procurement of goods, Ferry stated that technical authority lies under the control of PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara.