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70% of Beef Demand Met
Jakarta — Agriculture Minister Suswono said that national cattle and beef production are able to meet 70% of Indonesia’s domestic beef demand. “Basically, 70 percent could be supplied from domestic production,” said Suswono in Jakarta on Thursday (17/2/2011)
Suswono explained that data in 2010 records domestic feeder cattle reached 450,000 heads and domestic beef production reached 70,000 tons. “These two figures are what we rely on,” said Suswono.
Therefore, the government might still maintain the 30% import target to meet the domestic demands for beef.
He emphasized that the government will definitely try to lower cattle import, which is in accordance with the government’s target to achieve livestock self-sufficiency by 2014. For that, the government plans to hold a livestock census to know for sure the domestic production capacity. With that figure, the government could more accurately determine the import quota.
Livestock census will be held in collaboration with the Statistic Central Agency. The national census will most likely start after a memorandum of understanding is signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Statistic Central Agency in March 2011.
The government also plans to increase domestic cattle and other livestock production to achieve livestock self-sufficiency by 2014. “If for example, now we have the data, most likely later we will increase breeding. It’s OK to import for a while, but we have a plan for later,” said Suswono.
Based on the regulations, said Suswono, livestock self-sufficiency is achieved when domestic livestock production reaches 90 percent of the total national need. (ANT|Ed. Erlangga Djumena)
Source : Kompas