Govt plan to import beef blasted

JAKARTA (JP): The cattle industry and the Indonesian Consumers Foundation lambasted the government's plan to import beef and buffalo meat from India, demanding the cancellation of the "insensible decision".

The Indonesian Meat Producers and Feedlot (Apfindo) said on Monday the potentially contaminated meat from India might threaten local cattle with contagious diseases.

Apfindo chairman Nurendro Trikesowo said the plan would hurt the local cattle industry, which had begun to export beef to other countries.

"If the imported meat from India spread diseases to our cattle, we would never be able to enter the export market," Nurendro said.

The chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, Tini Hadad, warned the government on Monday that importing meat from India could introduce harmful and contagious diseases into the country's cattle.

Importing meat would be even riskier because of the low standards of monitoring and controlling meat in Indonesia. "If we are careless in inspecting imported meat, the impact would be quite devastating," she said.

Tini said India had not eliminated harmful diseases, like foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest, the highly contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, from its cattle industry.

The Office International des Epizooties (OIE) has declared rinderpest the most dangerous animal disease in the world, with a 90 percent mortality rate, Tini said.

"According to OIE, India has not been declared free from these diseases," she said.

Indonesia, on the other hand, eradicated the diseases in 1990 after a plague hit the country's cattle in 1987.

The secretary-general of the Indonesian Association of Cattle Farmers, Teguh Budiana, said on Monday the plan to import meat could crush local cattle breeders.

Teguh said local cattle breeders might not be able to compete with the imported meat. (das)