Milk products import-ratio policy to be changed
Milk products import-ratio policy to be changed
JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to replace its import-ratio
policy, which is a non-tariff barrier, on milk material imports
with a tariff, to conform with the rules of the World Trade
Organization, an official has announced.
Director General of Animal Husbandry Erwin Soetirto was quoted
over the weekend by Antara as saying in Bandung, West Java, that
the change will help prepare the country's milk industry for free
trade and will be in compliance with the rules of the World Trade
Organization.
The news agency did not mention when the change will be made.
Erwin explained that the import-ratio policy has been
implemented since 1982. Under the current formula of its import-
ratio policy, the government requires milk processing firms to
buy 2.9 liters of milk produced by domestic ranches for every
liter of milk they import.
He said that in the year 2005, tariff barriers for
agricultural products will be removed, so domestically-produced
milk, as well as other cattle-based products, must be of
sufficient quality to be able to compete with imports, both in
terms of quality and quantity.
He acknowledged that Indonesia still faces many technical
difficulties in this sector, which result in low productivity.
Domestic ranches currently produce nine to 10 liters of milk
per cow per day.
"In Thailand, for instance, milk production by farmers'
ranches reaches 26 liters per cow per day," Erwin said.
The economic scale of Indonesian cattle breeding, he said, was
also low, with an ownership of only three to four cows per
family. This is much lower than the ideal number of eight to 10
cows per family, as discovered by studies carried out by the
Directorate General of Animal Husbandry.
Other problems faced by domestic cattle breeders include lack
of managerial skills, problems of reproduction and poor quality
and insufficient cattle feed.
In 1994, Indonesia produced 351,000 tons of milk from a cattle
population of 338,000. (pwn)