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Oz wants annual quota on RI cattle import
Australia hopes to see Indonesia apply an annual quota for cattle imports and is currently looking for involvement from more Indonesian companies in the value chain of the live cattle market to better deal with constraints and challenges ahead
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Australia hopes to see Indonesia apply an annual quota for cattle imports and is currently looking for involvement from more Indonesian companies in the value chain of the live cattle market to better deal with constraints and challenges ahead.
Visiting Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said an annual quota system would help solve problems surrounding the supply of live cattle to Indonesia.
'I think if we can get a more stable arrangement with live cattle so that there's an annual quota, we can make sure we've got the supply when it's wanted here in Indonesia,' he said in a press briefing.
Robb said the two countries could develop a partnership in cattle breeding, something that Australia was good at, and cattle feeding, something that Indonesia was good at.
A clearer understanding between the two countries about constraints, difficulties, and challenges could be achieved if more Indonesian companies were involved in all parts of the value chain [in the live cattle market], he added.
Indonesia shocked Australian cattle farmers when it announced that it would slash the cattle import quota to only 50,000 heads of cattle for the third quarter of this year. The Australian industry expected to deliver around 200,000 heads of cattle.
Then, confusions came again when Trade Minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong said he would issue permits for an additional import of up to 300,000 heads of cattle for the remainder of the year to normalize beef prices, which increased due to a lack of supply in the domestic market.
Some in the public have argued that a slash in the quota for cattle imports from Australia was partly because of escalating political tensions between the two countries in light of the April execution of two Australian drug convicts in Indonesia. The government, however, has insisted that the policy was designed to support self-sufficiency in beef supplies.
Trade Ministry acting director general of foreign trade Karyanto Suprih said Indonesia's import quota for live cattle was very much influenced by demand in the market.
'In addition, instead of asking us to do this and that, it's better for Australia to boost its investment into Indonesia,' he told The Jakarta Post, adding that investment in the distribution sector would help ease the supply chain for live cattle imports.
Karyanto previously said that the government was mulling importing beef and live cattle from outside Australia to reduce its dependency on a single country.
While the measure, if imposed, would hugely affect Australia's cattle business, Robb said that he welcomed competition with other cattle exporters, and guaranteed that Australia could maintain the quality of its cattle to attract Indonesian consumers.
Indonesia is currently the largest importer of Australian live cattle, with total imports standing at 365,480 heads of cattle in the first half of this year, or more than 50 percent of Australia's total live cattle exports, surpassing imports from Vietnam and China, according to data from Meat and Livestock Australia.
During his one-day visit in Jakarta on Monday, Robb was to meet with the Communications and Information Minister, the Industry Minister and his Indonesian counterpart, Thomas Lembong, to discuss investment possibilities and live cattle issues, among other subjects.
