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)