November 17, 2008

Australia will realise its investment plans in beef cattle farm in Indonesia, according to Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono.

Indonesia and Australia have agreed in a meeting to establish a task force next year to realise the investment plan, said Apriyantono.

Australia will send their experts to Indonesia to help draft a proposal on efforts to increase investments in the sector, the minister said.

Apriyantono said Indonesia's dairy cow and beef cattle farm development aims to meet demand from the Middle East, which prefers to import meat from Indonesia as the products would be halal-guaranteed.

Apriyantono said the investment amount is not yet discussed as it had to wait for a review by the task force team.

During the meeting, Australia has also urged Indonesia to allow the imports of innards, but Indonesia said the import restriction will stay due to the commodity's high hormone residues and antibiotic presence.

If Australia wants to export innards to Indonesia, the products should b processed first and segmented as pet food, said Apriyantono.

Australia had protested the requirement of bilingual label for cattle products shipped to Indonesia, to which Apriyantono responded that the policy was important to improve product traceability and prevent smuggling.

It often happens that cattle products are said to come from Australia, but they actually come from other countries that have yet been declared as disease-free, according to Apriyantono.