Far Below Target, Australian Dairy Cattle Imports September 2025 Only 11,500 Heads

JAKARTA A total of 523 dairy cows from Australia arrived at Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta.

The shipment, which was pioneered by PT Asli Champion Indonesia (AJI) together with the North Australian Bottle Company (NACC), was welcomed by the Director of Animal Health of the Directorate General of PKH of the Ministry of Agriculture Hendra Wibawa.

However, behind this appreciation, the achievement of the import program of one million dairy cows is still far from the target.

As of September 2025, the number of dairy cows that managed to enter Indonesia was only 11,500, while this year's target was 150,000.

This wide gap makes the government's five-year program increasingly difficult to realize.

Director of PT AJI, Wahyu Suryono Pratama, assesses that the import of dairy cows is not just a business, but a necessity to add national milk production machines.

"We cannot stand still seeing 80 percent of the demand for milk continues to be met from powder imports. If this is allowed, this nation will forever depend on foreign markets," he said.

Meanwhile, the CEO of N9 Dairy Farm, Syafeezan, assessed that the national milk ecosystem must be reformed immediately.

"Imports of dairy cows are just the entrance. If the dairy processing industry (IPS) is still comfortable with imported powder milk, no matter how many cows are imported it will not have an impact," he said.

From the farmer side, Bayu Aji from Sapiperahfarm.id expressed another concern: "Susu segar is not always absorbed and often purchased at low prices. If the industry prefers imported milk, farmers will continue to be spectators. We want imported cows to be accompanied by the maximum absorption of local milk, otherwise, our struggle is in vain."

Domestic fresh milk production only meets about 20 percent of national needs, while the remaining 80 percent are met with imports.

This high dependence is increasingly risky in the midst of a surge in demand due to the Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG) and Drinking Free Milk which targets more than 80 million elementary to high school/vocational school students.

This program alone requires about 16 million liters of milk per day or 3.2 billion liters per year, while the national production is only 1 billion liters per year.

With an average dairy cow producing 15'20 liters of milk per day, Indonesia is estimated to require 800 thousand to 1 million productive cows just to meet MBG needs. The current population is around 600 thousand heads, showing a deficit of hundreds of thousands of tails that has become a real crisis.

Distribution problems worsen the situation. Without adequate cold chain infrastructure, fresh milk is difficult to reach remote areas, so that some production risks being wasted and children in remote areas are not getting the promised nutrition.

The dairy processing industry should be part of the solution. If the IPS is serious about absorbing local milk, the potential impact is huge: an additional 2 billion liters of production per year, foreign exchange savings of up to IDR 60 trillion, and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the upstream-downstream sector.

The arrival of 523 dairy cows from Australia today is just a small step, but it is a symbol of unrest that has turned into a real action.

The road to nutrition independence is still long, but if the voices of industry players and breeders are not ignored, Indonesia's opportunity to be independent in fulfilling milk remains wide open.