Ministry of Agriculture will Immediately Send a Team to Brazil

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Agriculture plans to send a special team to investigate on the possibility of importing beef from Brazil. “After April we will send a team of two or three to Brazil,” said Director of Veterinary Public Health of the Directorate General of Livestock, Turni Rusli Sjamsudin, in Jakarta on Wednesday. The team, he said, will inspect the conditions of the slaughterhouses in Brazil. The team will also make sure whether beef from Brazil is free from foot and mouth disease (FMD) and mad cow disease or not. According to Turni, besides Brazil, the Ministry is also considering to import from Uruguay because that country is already free from FMD.

Previously Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said that Brazil had asked Indonesia to open beef importation from that country. He thinks that currently Indonesia has not opened import because there still are some regions in Brazil that are infected with foot and mouth disease (FMD). “Therefore, in response to the offer of beef export from Brazil, the ministry will send a technical team to assess the safety and halality,” he said.
So far, to meet the local demands of beef, Indonesia still has to import from Australia and New Zealand, which are both safe from FMD and mad cow disease. But also to be noted, said the Minister, Brazil is the largest beef exporting country in the world, exporting to 180 countries.
Data from the Directorate General of Livestock indicates that national beef production in 2008 is estimated to fulfill only 64.9 percent of the projected demand for that year. In other words, Indonesia will still have a shortage of 135,110 tons (35.1 %) of beef. With a population of 11.26 million cattle, national beef production is estimated to reach 249,925 tons. Meanwhile, beef demand is estimated to reach 385,035 tons.
The Industry and Trade Exchange says Indonesia needs around 350,000 until 400,000 tons of beef every year. That amount is equal to 1.7 to 2 million beef cattle and until now Indonesia is still importing around 30 percent of beef.
Source : Antara