Govt plan to import beef blasted

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)