February 25, 2008

Jakarta distributes beef to halt meat scarcity and to control prices
 

Jakarta's provincial government is now distributing 300 tonnes of frozen beef and 600 cows from regional enterprise PD Dharma Jaya's stocks to halt meat scarcity and to control retail meat prices at IDR 50,000 (US$5.45) per kg.
 

Jakarta's governor Fauzi Bowo said Dharma Jaya had distributed meat to all traditional markets in Jakarta. Fauzi acknowledged that the supplied 300 tonnes is insufficient as 60 tonnes of beef are bought each day.

According to Fauzi, a long chain of beef trade, which involved many interests that are not within Jakarta's jurisdiction, caused meat scarcity.

However, he added that he had spoken to the minister of trade to give special attention to the problem of meat scarcity.