RI ranks low in milk consumption

JAKARTA: Indonesia ranks among the lowest Southeast Asian member states in terms of milk consumption, and has raised concerns about malnutrition among children in the world's fourth most populous country.

A recent Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report said milk consumption in Indonesia was at 5.5 kg/capita, below the FAO standard of 6.4 kg/capita.

"The data means each Indonesian drinks a drop of milk every day," the chairman of the Cattle and Buffalo Club of state-owned Padjajaran University, Roby Agustian, said on Sunday at a campaign to promote milk.

In Europe and the United States, each person consumes a glass of milk daily.

According to United Nations Children's Fund data in 1999, an abnormal baby is born in Indonesia every 40 seconds and a mother dies after delivery every 20 minutes. -- Antara