Govt to subsidize feed meal

JAKARTA (JP): The government has decided to allocate Rp 1.6 trillion (US$160 million) to help stabilize feed meal prices in the domestic market, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture said last week.

The head of the ministry's agribusiness department, Ato Suprapto, said the subsidy was indirectly targeted to help floundering small and medium poultry farmers to survive the monetary crisis.

The allocated funds will be used to purchase raw material of feed, such as corn and wheat pollard, which will then be resold to feed meal producers at normal prices, Ato said.

Feed meal prices have been skyrocketing in the past four months and have forced most of the country's poultry farmers into bankruptcy.

The sharp increase prices was caused mainly by the rising prices of its imported raw materials due to the rupiah's sharp depreciation against the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Feedmeal Producers Association, Budiarto Soebianto, said that over 70 percent of the country's poultry producers have closed their businesses because of the prolonged monetary crisis.

"Unless something is done immediately, it is feared that many feed mills will cease production because they can no longer find a sufficient number of buyers," he said. (gis)