Farmers warn of smuggling of chicken eggs and meat

Farmers warn of smuggling of chicken eggs and meat

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the country's poultry farmers yet to recover from the
devastating impact of bird flu, they now face a new threat: an
influx of much cheaper chicken eggs and meat smuggled from
neighboring Malaysia.

Indonesian Poultry Information Center chairman Hartono urged
the government to immediately take action against the smugglers,
who have reportedly bribed customs and other officials to
facilitate their smuggling operations.

Hartono explained that the smuggled chicken eggs and meat
would not only hurt local farmers, but could potentially be
carrying new strains of bird flu due to the failure to comply
with quality control and quarantine requirements.

"We have done everything to prevent bird flu from spreading,
including inoculating poultry at great expense, and culling
millions of chickens over a period of weeks. But just as the
government is getting the disease under control, the smugglers
are creating a new threat," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He feared that without immediate government action, many of
the country's 250 thousand chicken farmers would go out of
business.

"Each farmer has at least four or five dependents to feed.
These are the people who are at stake here," Hartono said.

When contacted by the Post, Anton, a chicken farmer in West
Kalimantan confirmed the problem, saying that over the past few
weeks, chicken eggs and meat had been smuggled into the province
via the border with Malaysia's Sarawak.

He accused customs officials, police and local government
officials to being in cahoots with the smugglers.

"The smugglers pay all these officials to be allowed to bring
thousands tons of eggs and meat into Indonesia every day. From
what I hear, Malaysia is experiencing a glut of chicken eggs and
meat," said Anton.

At least 2 million illegal chicken eggs and tons of chicken
meat were being sold in many areas of Kalimantan, such as
Sintang, Kapuas Hulu, Sambas, Sanggau and Pontianak, for around
Rp 250 per egg, with the meat being sold for Rp 6,000 per
kilogram, he said.

"These prices are less than the production costs of local
farmers," Anton said, pointing out that the production cost for
eggs here was about Rp 400 per kg, and about Rp 7,000 per kg for
meat.

A Medan farmer, Rahman, said the situation in Sumatra was
similar, with millions of eggs and tons of meat being smuggled
from Johor, Malaysia, to Dumai and Tanjung Balai for distribution
throughout Sumatra island.

"The smugglers cooperate with Navy officers, the customs and
excise office and the quarantine office so as to be able to bring
the eggs and meat in," he said.