October 17, 2012

 

Indonesia seeks increase in local beef consumption

 

 

Indonesia aims to improve local average beef consumption by tenfold, from two kilogrammes per person yearly to 20.

 

Despite his country's stated goal of self-sufficiency, Indonesia's trade minister, Gita Wirjawan, says beef imports from countries like Australia will continue to play a role in feeding that demand.

 

After meeting with his Australian counterpart, Craig Emerson, in Canberra, Wirjawan said his long-term view was that Indonesia will remain a good place for cattle traders to do business.

 

"If we want to go from two to 20 kilogrammes of beef consumption on a per capita, per year basis, at a US$7 per kilogramme price tag, we're talking about a US$35 billion business per year, here," he said.

 

"That should make it pretty good for anybody that wants to do business in the cattle industry in Indonesia."

 

Australian Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, agrees that Indonesia's goal to boost beef consumption is good news for the Australian cattle industry.

 

Australia has allocated US$21 million through AusAID to help Indonesia increase its beef production capacity, but Emerson says that does not mean Australian beef will be replaced by local product.

 

"It's boosting the overall trade rather than going back to this whole zero sum game that, you know, a kilo of beef from Australia displaces a kilo of beef from Indonesia," he said.

 

"When you're going hopefully from two to 20, it's all hands on deck rather than who wins and who loses.

 

"There'd be a lot of winners out of this."

 

The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, is in Jakarta this week, with his deputy, Julie Bishop, and agriculture spokesman, John Cobb.

 

Asked for her response to the comment from Wirjawan that relations between his country and Australia are currently "excellent", Bishop said that, "the Indonesian ministers are exceedingly polite and diplomatic, and I am not in the least bit surprised that that is the public line."

 

"We have met with many people up here in Indonesia about the live cattle issue and I can assure you, it is of deep concern not only to the Australians involved, but also to the Indonesians."