Govt asked to maintain ban on U.S. chicken imports

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Poultry Breeders has called on the government to maintain its ban on imports of chicken thighs from the United States.

The association's deputy chairman, A. Dawami, said here on Friday that if the government removed its restriction, U.S. chicken thigh imports would adversely affect the local poultry industry.

"The ban should be maintained. Otherwise chicken thighs from the U.S. will flood the Indonesian market and cause yet more misery to Indonesian poultry companies," he said.

The government barred the import of chicken thighs from the U.S. late last year due to uncertainty over the halal status of the product and alleged unfair business practices.

Imported chicken should carry a halal certificate to ensure that it is edible under Islamic rules.

Dawami said the government should be consistent in its decision, even though a group of chicken importers have already threatened to file a suit against the ban measure.

Chicken importers have claimed the reason behind the banning of chicken thigh imports from the United States was baseless and served only as a disguised measure to protect inefficient local companies.

But Dawami argued that the low price of the American chicken thigh had nothing to do with "business efficiency". "They are cheap because no one wants them," he added.

According to him, the price of a chicken thigh in the U.S. is 50 U.S. cents per kilogram, much lower than that of a chicken breast, which is priced at US$2.72. Whole chicken price in the U.S. stands at $1.2 (Rp 13,200) per kilogram, almost equal in price to the Indonesian whole chicken price, which is between Rp 13,000 and Rp 14,000 per kilogram, Dawami elaborated.

The association also said that Indonesia was not the only country hurt by the influx of U.S. chicken imports.

The Federation of ASEAN Poultry Producers (FAPP) voiced the same complaints against U.S. chicken imports during their meeting two week ago in Jakarta.

Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and host Indonesia agreed during the meeting to cooperate to curb the inflow of U.S. chicken.

Indonesia produces about 750 million tons of chicken meat per year, while chicken meat consumption stands at only four kilograms per capita a year.

Before the ban was imposed, chicken imports from the U.S. amounted to 20,000 tons a year. (03)