City needs 9,300 tons of beef for Ramadhan

City needs 9,300 tons of beef for Ramadhan

JAKARTA (JP): The City Husbandry Agency projects that the city will need at least 9,300 tons of meat, or 46,500 heads of cattle, during the fasting month of Ramadhan until the Idul Fitri festivities.

The agency head, Sumitro, said on Wednesday the need will be fulfilled by ranches in 13 provinces which are fattening up imported cows, and by imported frozen meat.

Sumitro said that 33,150 cows from East and West Nusa Tenggara as well as East Java have been sent to the city and about 18,000 cows from the ranches in the 13 provinces.

"The imported meat is needed to back up the demand," he said, without mentioning the amount of imported meat.

He said that normally the daily demand of meat in the city is 100 tons and the Cakung slaughterhouse processes about 700 cows per day.

He said an increase in meat demand is common before national festivities like Idul Fitri and the agency will do its best to meet the demand.

Sumitro said that it is a policy set by the central government to include imported meat as one of meat sources to control meat prices as well as cow populations.

He said that last year the number of cows slaughtered in Cakung reached 291,842. In 1994 only 256,700 cows were slaughtered because the country's cow population was less.

The main source of meat is still from public farms throughout Indonesia, he said.

"I don't think imported meat dominates meat supply in the city, because Jakartans prefer fresh meat to frozen," he said.

Sumitro added that it can be seen that the demand of frozen meat is only 30 tons per day. Imported meat is mainly used by factories, restaurants and hotels, not individuals. (yns)