Considered Excessive, PKB Legislator Criticizes Brazil's Dairy Cattle Import Plan Until 2029

ILLUSTRATION BETWEEN

JAKARTA - Member of Commission IV DPR from the PKB faction Hindun Anisah criticized the plan to import live cows from Brazil ahead of the implementation of the free nutritious eating program throughout 2025-2029. Hindun asked the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) to review the commitments of a number of companies to the plan.

According to him, if the import of cattle is carried out as a stimulant of optimizing a nutritious eating program, it is certainly not a problem. However, if the import is carried out in the long term, it is feared that it will backfire for local breeders.

"Yes, I think it's too much for you to import cows for nutritious food with a duration of up to 5 years. If it's only in early 2025, it's just a stimulus for my program, okay," said Hindun, Friday, December 13.

According to Hindun, the government should focus more on empowering local dairy farmers rather than continuing to depend on imports.

He suggested optimizing dairy cattle massively starting in 2025, so that the results could be used in the following year.

"We don't lack stock of cattle breeders, there are also many dairy cows. I suggest that instead of relying on imports, it is much better for 2025 to be used to optimize local livestock, then the following year it can be used for free nutritious food products," said Hindun.

Previously, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that as many as 211 companies were committed to importing live cows into Indonesia ahead of the implementation of President Prabowo Subianto's mainstay free nutritious food program (MBG) in 2025.

The Director General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health at the Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Suganda, said that the 211 companies consisted of 141 companies committed to bringing in dairy cows and 70 companies for broiler cows.

"Earlier, there were 141 cows (cash) perah, (who are 70 companies) broiler cows," said Agung after attending a discussion at the Bidakara Hotel, South Jakarta, Wednesday, December 11.

In detail, Agung said that 141 prospective dairy cattle investors plan to bring in 1.2 million heads for five years or throughout 2025-2029.

Then, 70 potential investors are committed to including 800,000 productive female broilers in the next five years.