Indonesia's current quota system for importing beef and live cattle will be changed to a price-based system, according to Indonesia's director general for trade, Bachrul Chairi.

Imports will be based on whether the domestic beef price goes above or below a parity price of US$7.80/kg (IDR76,500/kg).

"If the price increases by 15%, we will import. If the price decreases by 5%, we will stop the import," he said.

According to Bachrul Chairi, the government will also be issuing an immediate 60,000 extra permits for live cattle from Australia. The additional permits is welcomed by Bernie Brosnan, from the Northern Territory Livestock Exporters' Association, who says the proposed price-based system for imports would certainly help Australia's live export trade in the short term.

"Initially, we see this as a step forward on the previous quota policy ... beef is trading up there at the moment at around IDR100,000 (a kilogramme) and they're trying to drop it down to IDR76,500 (a kilogramme) which is the parity mark," he said. "So there's a lot of supply which has to go in there to get a change in that price."

Indonesia has been experiencing surging beef prices amid shortage in supply, which was made worse in the period leading up to the Ramadan fasting month and Idul Fitri holiday in early August.