L

ive cattle and sugar are on the import agenda next year to meet demand that cannot be fulfilled by domestic production.

Trade Ministry director general for foreign trade Bachrul Chairi said on Friday that up to 750,000 head of live cattle might be purchased next year, which would be an increase of 56.9 percent from 2013.

Of the number, 70 percent would be feedlot cattle and the remainder slaughter-ready cattle.

'€œWe prioritized feedlot cattle because we want to increase the added value locally,'€ he told reporters at his office.

Feedlot cattle need a few months to reach the ideal weight for slaughter.

Bachrul said the government would allow the regular monthly importation of feedlot cattle to ensure local supplies are sufficient, but would limit the delivery of slaughter-ready cattle to certain periods, particularly ahead of festivities.

Throughout the year, Indonesia has relied on cattle imports to curb inflation caused by rising meat prices due to a shortage of domestic supply.

Economists have raised concerns that the ongoing rupiah depreciation would also exert more pressure on inflation.

The government had set import at 267,000 head of feedlot cattle this year but that was not enough to meet demand.

To fulfill demand during Idul Fitri, the government agreed to import another 24,750 head of slaughter-ready cattle, according to Trade Ministry statistics. Of the figure, 24,525 head were realized.

Still facing a shortage, it then decided to import 89,500 head of feedlot cattle and 96,500 head of slaughter-ready cattle to close the demand-supply gap in the last quarter of this year. Of those numbers, 24,466 head of feedlot cattle and 97,892 head of slaughter-ready cattle had entered the country as of Dec. 18.

Recently, the government lifted import quotas for beef and live cattle to push down prices and pacify inflation.

This move encourages imports when the domestic beef price surges by more than 15 percent of the reference price of Rp 75,000 (US$6.14) per kilogram.

Indonesia, at present, depends heavily on cattle imports from Australia, but it is now looking at importing from other countries such as Brazil, which is Australia'€™s main livestock competitor in the global market.

In another measure to meet rising demand for sugar, the government might increase imports of raw sugar by up to 7 percent from the estimated 3.1 million tons this year, Bachrul said.

'€œWe have rolled out permits for imports of 800,000 tons [of raw sugar] for the first half of next year as stockpiles at refineries from December to February were low,'€ he said.

The exact total import quota for next year would be announced after the Industry Ministry concluded an assessment of sugar needs, he added.

Apart from issuing sugar import permits for importers, the government will also pass a permit for State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to import sugar as buffer stock, according to Bachrul.

The Bulog chief earlier this week said that it might need sugar stocks of up to 300,000 tons next year in order to stabilize local prices.