Importing Chicken Meat Is Inevitable, Government Asked Business Actors To Pursue Production Efficiency

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) estimates that the rate of imports of chicken meat will be increasingly inevitable in the future.

Director General of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Trade Syailendra said the entry of food commodities from abroad was because the production price was much lower than the costs incurred by local business actors to produce the same product.

"Farmers here have to work extra hard to pursue efficiency so that the selling price can be competitive. That's the challenge, ”he said in a webinar, Wednesday, April 21.

Syailendra added, one of the countries estimated to be the origin of chicken meat imports is Brazil. According to him, the country in the South American region is quite good at managing various types of food commodities, especially livestock.

"(Imports of chicken meat from Brazil) are still hindered by WTO (World Trade Organization) rules regarding the decision of the Dispute Settlement Body," he said.

For information, Indonesia lost in facing Brazil's lawsuit over the import policy of chicken meat. Brazil, as the largest meat importer country in the world, filed a formal lawsuit through the WTO in 2014 because they considered Indonesia to have closed access since 2009. Now the government is filing an appeal and is still in the judicial process.

“It's just buying time. Brazil is in sight, if we look at the current price, we will lose, "he said.

For this reason, Syailendra hopes that the supply of corn as the main ingredient for chicken feed can be maintained. He also said that he would build communication with related parties for the availability of feed in order to reduce the selling price of chickens in the market more affordable.

Furthermore, Syailendra did not rule out the possibility of procuring imported maize if the domestic supply was deemed insufficient.

"We first calculate the production and needs, only how much can we import and not during the harvest period," he explained.

Based on data released by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan), the national chicken meat production amounts to around 3 million tons per year. Meanwhile, the level of domestic consumption is 2.2 million tons. The Ministry of Agriculture is trying to pursue this difference through the Love to Eat Chicken (Gemaya) campaign which was launched last year.