MLBA9: June / July 2009

 

 

 

 

While Thai broiler production has since exploded to 18-19 million a week since the start of 2009, Indone­sia seemed to have taken the opposite road. It has cut down production to 16-17 million a week after a slow­down in domestic consumption trig­gered by a global recession that has cost thousands of Indonesian jobs.

 

Unlike Thailand, which exports 40 percent of its broiler output, Indonesia has cast its lot with its huge domestic market - a population of 230 million people of which 88 percent are Mus­lim who shun pork.

 

Although it has no major livestock export, its feed production this year is estimated at 8.4 million tonnes, just about 1.5 million shy of Thailand's 10 million tonnes. Nearly three-fourth (70 percent) of this production goes to poultry, with only 8 percent of it going to swine. The rest goes to aqua­culture and dairy.

 

This size of a local market has somewhat been a disincentive to poultry breeders. It was big enough to keep them busy that export had been a distant goal, at least before the current domestic slump.

 

The tune has changed. Now the country is talking about exporting poultry. According to its agriculture minister, "the country has been suf­ficiently meeting its own needs for chicken meat and eggs for the past few years but poultry breeders should now orient their businesses to over­seas destinations."

 

But there are big hurdles. For one, Indonesia doesn't have Thailand's sophistication as livestock exporter. In Thailand, chicken meat exports are sourced mainly from large com­mercial operations that can meet in­ternational biosecurity standards in a cost-effective manner. Indonesia's poultry production, on the other hand, remains largely in the hands of back­yard farmers, like in most Southeast Asian countries. Here, small numbers of animals are kept in household yards to provide food and supplementary income for families.

 

Under these operations, hygiene and veterinary practices are poor and the technologies used in animal rais­ing and breeding are basic. Productiv­ity is low and biosecurity is almost non-existent. With these conditions, it is impossible for Indonesia to be com­petitive at the moment in the meat ex­port trade.