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)