IPB Professor Called Jabodetabek Will Experience Beef Crisis: Imports From Australia, Brazil And Mexico Are Expensive

Beef illustration. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Professor of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry IPB University Muladno Basar assessed that the Jabodetabek area could experience a prolonged beef crisis if it is not addressed with long-term solutions from the government and business actors.

According to Muladno, the increase in beef prices which caused traders in traditional markets to go on strike only occurred in the DKI Jakarta and Bodetabek areas. The increase in beef prices also only occurred in the Jabodetabek area, not nationally.

The soaring prices, said Muladno, were the impact of Indonesia's dependence on beef imports from other countries, particularly Australia.

"DKI and Botabek could have a prolonged beef crisis because the import of feeder cattle is expensive from Australia. Then, the import of cattle from Brazil and Mexico is also expensive because it is too far from a geographic or distance perspective," Muladno said as quoted by Antara, Saturday, January 23.

Apart from being dependent on imports, Muladno explained that feeder cattle production in Indonesia was insufficient. More bull feeders in Indonesia are prepared by breeders for Eid al-Adha.

Jabodetabek itself is a consumer area for livestock meat. On the other hand, there are eight provinces that can supply meat to Jabodetabek with a population of bulls above 750,000 per province.

The eight provinces are East Java with the highest population of over 4 million, followed by Central Java, South Sulawesi, NTB, NTT, North Sumatra, Lampung and Bali.

However, these eight provinces are also not sufficient to meet the needs of livestock food for Jabodetabek. Therefore, Indonesia supplies it from Australia with a cattle population of over 26 million tonnes.

One of the provinces in Australia, Darwin, also supplies meat to Jakarta, because it is closer to the Sulawesi region.

With the dependence on imports from Australia, the price of beef in Jabodetabek will increase if the price of feeder cattle in that country increases.

Therefore, Muladno assessed that the cattle industry activities should be left up to business actors.

"Submit the cattle industry activities to business people totally. The government only issues regulations that are conducive to business people," said Muladno.