Pressing Chicken Price Increases, Entrepreneurs Ask The Government To Reduce Imports And Look To Local Producers

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Agriculture's (Kementan) plan to continue to increase productive female breeds for chickens needs to pay more attention to local production. The reason is, Indonesia has become the first to create chicken seeds, better known as the Great Grand Parent Stock (GGP) in Asia.

Founder of PT Putra Perkasa Genetics Renaldy Anggada said, chickens produced from these seeds have better immunity compared to chicken seeds from other countries. "These characteristics make chicken seeds from Indonesia suitable for the tropical climate in Indonesia," said Renaldy in his statement, Thursday, July 21.

As is known, the Ministry of Agriculture plans to procure 18.3 million chicken breeds this year, increasing by 18.97 million in 2023 and 19.51 million in 2024.

Seeing the plan, Renaldy assessed, the government needs to supply grand parent stock (GPS) to achieve the target as stated in the second amendment to the Ministry of Agriculture's Strategic Plan for 2020-2024.

"In the future, the government needs to pay attention to this potential for the development of an independent and competitive livestock industry. This is of course in line with the expectations of Mr. President Joko Widodo, who emphasized the importance of absorbing domestically produced products, one of which is the GGP of superior broiler chickens," he said.

Currently, Indonesia is still very dependent on imported chicken seeds from abroad. Thus, the actual price of chicken will depend on the world economic situation.

According to Renaldy, to suppress the increase in chicken prices in Indonesia, the government is expected to reduce the number of imports of chicken seeds from abroad and believe in local production. This is done in order to maintain the market price of broiler chickens.

"By using local chicken seeds, the price of chicken seeds can be reduced cheaper and can reduce the price of chicken in the Indonesian market. This method can certainly be taken to reduce the number of imported chicken seeds," said Renaldy.

The government is also expected to continue to collaborate actively with business actors, so that success in implementing policies can be truly felt by the community.