Ministry of Industry pushes for increased milk industry capacity to support Free Nutritious Meal programme
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) is encouraging an increase in the capacity of the milk processing industry to meet the requirements of the 2026 Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme, which is estimated to reach 4.8 billion milk packages of 115 and 125 millilitres.
“For the 2026 MBG programme, the milk requirement is 4.8 billion packages, whereas the national milk processing capacity for 115 and 125 millilitre packages is currently only 2.39 billion, or 49.7 per cent of the total MBG requirement,” said Merrijantij Punguan Pintaria, Director of the Beverage, Tobacco, and Refreshment Industry at the Ministry of Industry, during a press conference for Nusantara Milk Day 2026 in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Industry noted that three companies have already undertaken capacity increases or new investments to support the MBG programme. Nevertheless, it was assessed that these capacity increases must continue to be strengthened to support the future fulfilment of milk needs for the MBG programme.
According to Merrijantij, the government is also encouraging cooperatives to enter the milk processing sector to expand domestic milk production capacity. “We sincerely hope that the milk processing industry can partner with cooperatives and provide assistance to cooperatives that wish to engage in processing to meet the MBG milk requirements,” she said.
The Ministry is currently implementing an industrial restructuring programme to support the capacity increase of filling units within the milk processing industry and for cooperatives intending to produce ready-to-drink packaged milk. Through this programme, the government provides investment cost reimbursements of up to 35 per cent for products with high Domestic Component Level (TKDN) and up to 25 per cent for other domestic products.
In line with this, the Ministry of Industry is also digitalising the national fresh milk supply chain. Currently, 96 milk collection points from nine cooperatives have been integrated into the government’s digitalisation programme. “We are also preparing an application that all these cooperatives can use to send data, allowing us to monitor the real-time supply of milk across these 96 collection points,” Merrijantij explained.
She noted that milk consumption in Indonesia remains relatively low compared to several other ASEAN nations. Based on 2022 World Population Review data, Indonesian milk consumption was recorded at 17.76 litres per capita per year, lower than Malaysia at 42.49 litres, Singapore at 46.1 litres, and Vietnam at 37.21 litres per capita per year.
She assessed that the Nusantara Milk Day 2026 commemoration serves as a momentum to drive increased milk consumption while strengthening the national milk industry from upstream to downstream. According to Merrijantij, increasing milk consumption and strengthening the national milk processing industry are vital components in supporting human resource development towards ‘Indonesia Emas 2045’. Therefore, she stated that the Ministry of Industry, alongside industry players, continues to push for increased national milk production capacity to ensure that public nutritional needs, including those for the MBG programme, can be met sustainably.