Demand For Beef To Increase 5 Times In Ramadan And Eid, ID FOOD Fulfills Imports

Director of Business Development and Control ID Food Dirgayuza Setiawan. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Director of Business Development and Control ID Food Dirgayuza Setiawan revealed that Indonesia's beef consumption level is far from the world's average.

Even so, at certain moments such as Ramadan and Eid, consumption of this commodity has increased five times.

"We can see that especially for meat consumption in Indonesia, it is quite unique, where in the month of Ramadan and Eid, the increase can be 5 times compared to usual monthly consumption," he said in CNBC Indonesia Economic Outlook 2024, in Jakarta, Thursday, February 29.

Because of this increasing demand, he said, it automatically made beef prices soar during that period.

To meet the need for beef, he continued, ID FOOD was assigned by the government through the National Food Agency to import.

"This means that we do import time before Ramadan and Eid. We at ID FOOD this year we have an import of 20,000 tons of beef from Brazil and there are also live cows that we import from Australi," he explained.

Furthermore, he said, if the demand is minimal, the stock is abundant and the price of meat will also decrease. Meanwhile, when the demand increases, the stock runs low and prices rise.

Therefore, according to Dirgayuza, the time or timing of imports is very important to do. The reason is, if not carried out, it will have an impact on the price of meat in the market.

"Of course, when we will import it is very important," he said.

Dirgayuza said, when Indonesia's GDP per capita increased until 2045, consumption of meat had increased to 6.8 kg per capita.

Meanwhile, national production is unable to fulfill this.

"We are now in meat around 509,000 tons, national production stagnant, the increase in national production in the last five years is only 0.04 percent per year. Meanwhile, our consumption increases per year by about 3 percent," he said.

"This means that there needs to be government intervention in the form of policies or investment so that production can greatly increase. If we really want to be self-sufficient in the field of beef," he continued.