Importer group balks at buying Indian meat

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Meat Importers Association (Aspidi) said on Monday it will not import meat from India even though it has been assigned by the government to do so.

Aspidi chairwoman Frieda N. Nalapraya said importing the Indian beef and buffalo meat would be too risky because it could spread disease to the local cattle industry.

"We do not want to be blamed if the contagious diseases spread to this country," she said at a media gathering, while admitting that importing the Indian meat could give them higher profits as it is much cheaper than that from other countries.

Aspidi's statement followed growing opposition from the public to the buying of Indian beef.

The Indonesian Veterinary Association, the Indonesian Meat Producers and Feedlot Association, and the Indonesian Consumer Foundation have earlier voiced similar criticisms of the government's plan to import Indian meat to compensate for the shortfall in the local market.

According to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) -- an international body dealing with epizootiology, the study of epidemics among animals -- India has not been declared free of foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest, an highly contagious bovine pleuropneumonia.

The OIE ranks rinderpest, which has a 90 percent mortality rate, as the most dangerous animal disease in the world.

Indonesia eradicated the disease in 1990 after a plague decimated the country's cattle population in 1987. Importing the Indian meat could bring the disease back into the country.

Some analysts have speculated that the public's opposition to buying the Indian meat was engineered by Australian meat exporters and their local partners so that Indonesia would continue to buy from the neighboring country.

The president of cattle rearing company PT Tipperary Indonesia Willy Soegiono dismissed the speculation.

"We import from Australia because that country has been declared free of contagious diseases, the prices of its cattle are more competitive and the transportation costs are lower than importing cattle from the United States," he said at the same gathering.

He added that shipment from the United States took about 28 days, while shipment from Australia took only five days.

Willy said the move could also hurt the local cattle industry, which had begun to export to other countries.

"If the imported meat from India spread diseases to our cattle, we would never be able to enter the export market again. Singapore may stop importing our pork, and other countries will stop buying leather from us," he said.

Willy said the plan, if realized, would be an invitation to other countries not yet declared disease-free to export their meat to Indonesia.

Former director general of animal husbandry Soehadji said that the government's plan to import Indian beef was counterproductive to its pledge to develop the local cattle industry.

Soehadji, who was once also vice president of OIE, said that although the special team assigned to study the Indian meat found the meat to be hygienic, the government should make a bilateral agreement with the Indian government.

"If the government decides to import the Indian meat, the move should be followed by establishing a health protocol, which would require the Indian government to guarantee that its meat exports are free from highly contagious diseases." (gis)