November 1, 2005

Indonesia to revise beef import policies

Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said he would revise the country's beef import policies. Currently, Indonesia only imported beef from countries that were free from foot-and-mouth disease, or FMD.

Apriyantono said the revised regulation would permit beef imports from countries where some regions were not yet free from FMD. This meant that regions within the affected country that were free from FMD could still export beef to Indonesia.

Indonesia only imported beef from New Zealand and Australia currently, because of both countries' FMD-free status.

However, the government was now considering the possibility of importing beef from Argentina and Hungary. This reportedly might become a reality this December once a FMD review and the policy revisions were completed.

Indonesia also hoped that these two countries would help lower domestic meat prices, as imported Australian and New Zealand beef were quite costly due to lack of competition.

Apriyantono added that no quota limits would be imposed on imported beef from Argentina and Hungary.