Solo, C Java (Antara Bali) - Indonesia will import 270 thousand heads of cattle from Australia to meet its domestic need in the upcoming fasting month, Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel said.
"Indonesia could not meet its own need for meat in the coming fasting month and post-fasting Lebaran festivities," the minister said on the sidelines of his visit to inspect commodity price developments in the face of the fasting month here on Thursday.
He said that in order to meet the domestic need for meat, the country has to import 270 thousand heads of cattle from Australia.
Referring to other needs, the minister said there is not need to import other commodities such as shallots, chili and others, except garlic.
He said that a number of shallot producing regions had begun harvests so that there was no need to import it. The results of harvest could be seen in Solo's Gede Market where its price began to go down.
The price of shallot in the market has declined from Rp32 thousand per kilogram (kg) to Rp30 thousand per kg, he said.
The price of chili which last year happened to soar to Rp80 thousand per kg has dropped to Rp20 thousand per kg. Tomato's price has also gone down from Rp8 thousand per kg to Rp6 thousand per kg.
In the meantime, the government has expressed optimism to reach the target of beef self sufficiency in 2018 by increasing the country's cow population.
"We will continue to push for increasing the country's cow population by livestock farmers to support the program of self sufficiency in beef supply," Director of Business Expansion and Investment at the Agriculture Ministry Jamil Musanif said on Friday last week.
Jamil said the government is focused on artificial insemination program, addition of cow breeders, improving animal feed quality to increase the country's cow population. (WDY)
