Govt defends plan to import Indian beef and buffalo
Govt defends plan to import Indian beef and buffalo
JAKARTA (JP): The government defended on Tuesday its plan to
import beef and buffalo meat from India to compensate for local
market shortfall despite heated opposition from industry and
consumer associations.
State Minister of Food Affairs and Horticulture AM Saefuddin,
speaking to the media after meeting with President B.J. Habibie,
said the plan was intended to ensure an adequate supply of meat
at affordable prices on the domestic market.
He said Aurangabad, the Indian regency set to export the meat
to Indonesia, boasted a decades-long track record of exporting
buffalo meat to 53 countries, including Malaysia's Sarawak state
and Brunei Darussalam.
"Whether the Indian meat contains contagious diseases is only
a matter of hygiene requirements in international trade. God
willing, a team assigned by Minister of Agriculture Soleh
Solahuddin will study the matter and find the truth," he said.
Saefuddin said the Indians offered the bufallo meat for about
Rp 11,000 per kilogram.
"It means that the meat could be sold at around Rp 14,000 per
kilogram on the market, far below the price of local beef and
Australian meat which currently sells at Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000
per kilogram."
Saefuddin said the country faced a shortage of meat during
Christmas, New Year's, the Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri
festivities, all of which fell during December and January.
"During that time, we could only supply 38,000 tons of beef
while demand reached over 50,000 tons."
Soleh Solahuddin announced earlier he would send an
independent team to India to study the possibility of importing
beef and bufallo meat. The decision to import will depend on the
results of the team's investigation.
"If the team says Indian meat is not hygienic, we will cancel
the plan. But please be objective in this matter and do not
intimidate people with bombastic statements."
He said the team would comprise scholars, veterinarians and
the ministry's officials.
Soleh said the country imported between 400,000 tons and
500,000 tons of beef from Australia annually, but its cost was
now exorbitant for many Indonesians.
"We are very dependent on Australian beef. Why don't we import
beef from another market which can offer us cheaper prices when
our people cannot afford to buy Australian meat anymore? However,
we haven't decided who the importers will be."
A source at the Ministry of Agriculture said the planned
importer of the meat was a company linked to a minister.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Veterinary Association (PDHI)
lambasted the plan, saying the move carried too many risks for
the introduction of contagious diseases.
PDHI chairman Sri Dadi Wiryosuhanto said India's cattle
industry had yet to eradicate harmful livestock disorders like
foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest, the highly contagious
bovine pleuropneumonia.
The Office of International des Epizooties (OIE) -- dealing
with epizootiology, the study of epidemics among animals -- ranks
rinderpest the most dangerous animal disease in the world, with a
90 percent mortality rate, Sri said.
"According to OIE, India has not been declared free from these
diseases."
Indonesia eradicated the disease in 1990 after an outbreak
decimated the country's cattle population in 1987.
The Indonesian Consumers Foundation also lambasted the
government plan, demanding a rethink of the "insensible
decision".
The foundation agreed that importing meat from India could
introduce harmful and contagious diseases into the country, with
a particularly pronounced liability due to low standards in meat
monitoring and control in Indonesia.
Indonesian Meat Producers and Feedlot (Apfindo) said potential
contamination of the Indian meat might threaten local cattle with
disease.
Apfindo chairman Nurendro Trikesowo warned the plan could hurt
the local cattle industry's fledging efforts to export beef.
"If the imported meat from India spread diseases to our
cattle, we would never be able to enter the export market."
(gis/prb)