February 18, 2013
Foreign investors eye Indonesia's cattle breeding sector
Foreign investors are interested in Indonesia's cattle breeding business with at least two investors from Australia and Taiwan having explored investment in breeding cows.
Syukur Iwantoro, director general of Livestock and Animal Health Ministry of Agriculture, said that foreign investors are interested in investing in cattle production centres.
"We expect investment in farms to rise by 20% compared to last year, mainly for cattle breeding both domestic investment and FDI," said Iwantoro in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on Friday (Feb 15). He did not mention about the value of investment in the farms last year.
This year, the government will develop beef cattle business in East Nusa Tenggara and West Papua. In West Papua, Kemtan will develop beef cattle business as much as 2,170 heads of cattle. The plan is expected to support the beef self-sufficiency programme in 2014.
"Less are investing in cattle breeding business as it is expensive, yet returns are small and investment turnover in breeding cows is quite long," said Juan Permata Adoe, vice chairman of Food Processing Industries and Animal Husbandry Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said prices of live cattle aged 12-18 months are quite expensive, which costs US$2,500 per head. Besides expensive, cattle breeding business risk is quite large.
Kemtan noted that beef cattle population in December 2012 reached 16 million head. While the population of dairy cows reached 600,000 head. In 2013, beef cattle population is expected at 16.6 million birds and 661,000 dairy cows' tail.
