Riau Islands Governor Calls For Buying Local Beef Amid FMD Threats

Checking cattle on a farm in Garut, West Java. (AntaraHO-Diskominfo Garut)

KEPRI - Governor of the Riau Islands Province (Kepri) Ansar Ahmad invited his citizens to buy local beef. The call resulted in the temporary suspension of cattle shipments from outside the region due to the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.

"There is also a lesson in the temporary ban on sending livestock from outside the region, so we can use local beef," said Governor Ansar in Tanjungpinang, quoted from Antara, Saturday, May 21.

Ansar said that he had coordinated with district/city governments to record local cattle supply in each region to meet daily needs and ahead of Eid al-Adha 2022.

However, he said, it is possible that the local government will still bring in cattle from other provinces that are not exposed to FMD if it is necessary to meet the high demand of the community.

"Usually we bring cattle from Lampung, Jambi, and Palembang. But those three areas have been affected by FMD, so deliveries have been temporarily suspended, so we are trying to find alternative areas if we have to import cattle," said Ansar.

Ansar said that his area is not a center for cattle/goat farming, so it is not surprising that so far the need for livestock is mostly imported from outside the region, such as Lampung, Jambi, and Palembang.

He also understands the complaints of beef traders/breeders in the area because they are worried that they will not be able to sell due to the limited immediate stock of beef, due to a traffic ban on cattle deliveries in the midst of the outbreak of FMD.

"The local government and related parties are trying to find a solution to the fulfillment of beef stocks in Riau Islands, especially in welcoming the Sacrifice Day," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Association of Traders and Cattle/Goat Breeders of Tanjungpinang City and Bintan Thamrin Regency said that the current stock of live cattle can only last for the next week.

He explained that every day the need for fresh beef, especially in Tanjungpinang City, was 2 cows. Meanwhile, the current daily stock of beef cattle is only 15 heads.

"After one week, if no cows enter Tanjungpinang, the beef stall will close," said Thamrin.

Thamrin stated that breeders and traders could not bring in cattle from outside the region following the issuance of a temporary suspension of quarantine certification for FMD carriers from the Jambi Class I Agricultural Quarantine Center which took effect on May 15, 2022.

According to him, cattle imported from areas such as Jambi, Lampung, and Palembang are usually sent to Tanjungpinang-Bintan via the Kuala Tungkal port, Jambi.

"But due to the policy of temporarily stopping the quarantine certification, the cows cannot be crossed from the Jambi port to this area," he said.