BI to provide special loans to poultry farmers
JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia, the central bank, plans to provide special credit to help the country's financially troubled poultry farmers.
The Ministry of Agriculture said over the weekend that the special credit facilities would be provided to small and medium poultry farmers whose operations are backed by large poultry companies or cooperatives.
"Bank Indonesia and related agencies are in discussions to begin channeling the credits," the ministry said.
Each farmer will be entitled to two loan packages, worth Rp 25 million (US$2,775) each.
The funds will be used to buy 5,000 broiler chickens at Rp 600 each, feed meal at Rp 1,200 per kilogram and medicine.
The ministry estimated each grown chicken could fetch a price of Rp 4,500 per kilogram.
The program is aimed to help 6,000 poultry farmers in the country.
About 3,500 of these are small holders cooperating with large poultry companies, while the remaining 2,500 are small holders having business links with cooperatives.
The ministry said farmers which are not in cooperation with large holders would be guaranteed feed meal at Rp 1,200 per kilogram by their cooperatives.
The currency crisis, which has slashed the rupiah's value against the dollar by about 75 percent, has more than doubled the price of feed meal, which mainly contain imported materials.
The skyrocketing prices have threatened most of the country's poultry farmers and forced at least 80 percent of the farmers to suspend operations.
There are currently 17,600 poultry farmers across the country, of which 12,400 breed broiler chickens and the remaining 5,200 breed layer chicken.
The farmers are located in 15 provinces throughout Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Bali.
Large farmers only make up 20 percent of poultry farmers, and they have been supporting their small partners with feed meal during the financial turmoil, the ministry said.
The ministry said that small farmers could also sell their broiler chickens to their larger partners. (das)