Indonesia to impose beef import quotas

Indonesia will impose quotas on beef imports to protect local cattle farmers from mass imports from New Zealand, Australia and Brazil, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said.

The import quotas would be fixed accordingly to domestic demand, Apriyantono said.

Ironically, Indonesia has recently agreed to an ASEAN free trade deal which will see beef imports from New Zealand and Australia. Under the new FTA, Indonesia will completely slash its import duties on four beef products by 2020 and on seven dairy products between 2017 and 2019. The tariffs currently average 5 percent.

Indonesia also plans to expand its sources of imported beef by including Brazil, apparently to provide the domestic market with imported beef at competitive prices.

Apriyantono said he would sign a decree soon to legalise beef imports from Brazil after receiving a notification of approval from the WTO last week.

Indonesia previously proposed to the WTO that it should be allowed to choose beef import sources by zone, not by country, due to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) issue.

Last year, Indonesia consumed about 380,000 tonnes of beef, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Domestic producers supplied 273,000 tonnes or 72 percent of the total, while the rest were made up of imports mostly from Australia, New Zealand and the US.