Moeldoko Suggests The Government Needs To Find Alternative Beef Importing Countries

Moeldoko/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko emphasized that the government needs to find alternatives to beef importing countries other than Australia in order to ensure affordable prices and adequate availability of beef ahead of Eid 2022. national beef cattle, at the Bina Graha Building, Jakarta, Tuesday, March 1. “There needs to be an alternative import country other than Australia that is able to meet the domestic demand for beef at affordable prices. This needs to be done quickly," said Moeldoko in a press release in Jakarta, Tuesday. For information, the current domestic beef price is influenced by the increase in imported feeder cattle prices from Australia. US dollars per kg live weight from the position of 3.8 US dollars per kg. This price continued to rise to 4.5 US dollars per kg in February. This high import price triggered a significant increase in beef prices at the national level from Rp. 119,750/kg on February 26, 2021 to Rp. 125,550/kg on February 25, 2022. or an increase of 4.9 percent. The highest price of beef was observed in Aceh Province, reaching Rp. 140,650/kg. Meanwhile, in DKI Jakarta, the price of beef is Rp. 140,000/kg.

"The president is very worried about the rising inflation of some commodities, such as soybeans, cooking oil, and now we are anticipating that beef will not continue to rise. The government is quick to respond to this situation so that there are no delays," said Moeldoko. According to the Director General of Livestock and Animal Health According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nasrullah, the availability of beef from February to May 2022 reached 240,948.5 tons. Meanwhile, the demand for meat until May 2022 will reach 238,213 tons. This figure shows that there is a surplus of 276 tons of availability which should be able to prevent the scarcity of beef. “This price increase is often based on the price of imported feeder cattle. When they hear that the price of feeder cattle is going up, they want to increase the price, so it is necessary to set a reasonable selling price based on the purchase price,” said Nasrullah. According to Nasrullah, the quickest step now is to choose Mexico or Brazil as an alternative country to import beef.