Food Association Calls Free Milk Program Prabowo-Gibran Will Rely On Imports

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers (Gapmmi), Adhi S. Lukman. (Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Elected President Prabowo Subianto will present a free milk drink program as a complement to free nutritious food. Suppliers are reportedly obtained from local industries.

Responding to the plan, the General Chairperson of the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers (Gapmmi) Adhi S. Lukman revealed that domestic supplies have not been able to meet the needs of the program.

"Meanwhile, in my opinion, like it or not (must be imported), while fixing it upstream," Adhi told reporters, quoted on Tuesday, July 23.

Adhi said that currently domestic milk production has been fully absorbed for national consumption needs. In fact, he noted that it was still lacking because around 80 percent of the needs were still supplied from imports.

According to him, the plan to import dairy cows to Indonesia is a difficult step. Because, there are only a few areas in Indonesia that are suitable as centers for milk production.

"Now local production has been absorbed 100 percent, but it is still lacking. That's why there is a program, he said he wants to add more cows. But, right, it's not easy. Because Indonesia is a tropical country that doesn't have a wide field," he said.

With these obstacles, Adhi assessed, milk production in Indonesia is far behind other countries. For example, there are Australia and Europe where each dairy farm is able to produce up to 50 liters of milk per day.

"In Australia or Europe, the productivity per day can be 40-50 liters. Here the average farmer is around 12-15 liters, companies that are already quite large like Greenfields and so on can be around 20-25 liters. Nothing is 30 liters, it's still better," said Adhi.

"But, most of our breeders are people's breeders whose productivity is low because the weather is not suitable and so on," he added.

Not only that, said Adhi, local breeders are also still constrained by feed innovations that are useful for supporting the productivity of dairy cows. He saw an example in China with four seasons, the country was able to maintain milk production throughout the year.

Even so, the scheme is again not suitable to be implemented in Indonesia. Mainly related to the land needed as a support.

"We must have a large area of land, innovation in feed, must have superior seeds for dairy cows and so on. The management of livestock is not easy," he said.

"It's not as easy as it says 'I want to add one million breeders or one million cows', who wants to manage it, where to put it and so on. Not yet weather that doesn't support it," he continued.

Meanwhile, Adhi admitted that several Gapmmi member companies were invited to import dairy cows. However, he assessed that there are still many aspects that are considered to be realized.

"Yes, several Gapmmi member manufacturers were asked to support the cattle procurement program. However, there are indeed many things that must be prepared, it cannot be immediately like that," he concluded.