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new livestock vessel carried a shipment of 500 head of cattle from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to Jakarta on Tuesday after the government agreed to allow direct sales.

NTT cattle traders had stopped using the KM Camara Nusantara I in reaction to being forced to sell their livestock to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), which set beef prices lower than market price.

'€œThere'€™s no longer any problem because the entrepreneurs can sell directly to Jakarta,'€ NTT Cattle and Buffalo Entrepreneurs Association head Decky Budyanto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Traders, Decky said, were no longer refusing to use the vessel, adding that cattle entrepreneurs in NTT would from now on use the services of the KM Camara to send livestock to Surabaya, East Java, and Jakarta.

The consignment fee to transport one head of cattle to Surabaya was Rp 275,000 (US$20) and to Jakarta Rp 320,000, including insurance fees, he went on.

 '€œAs agreed, today [Tuesday] we sent 500 head of cattle from NTT to Jakarta. As many as 300 were transported from Tenau Port in Kupang and another 200 were sent from Waingapu Port in East Sumba,'€
he said.

For Tuesday'€™s shipment, PT Berdikari and PT Darma Jaya were given a quota of 100 beasts each, while PT Bumi Tirta and PT HA were given a quota of 50 each. '€œThe remaining 200 were sent by a company in Sumba,'€ said Decky.

The livestock vessel, Decky added, was a great boon, as it allowed local traders to cut costs and delivery time. A normal freighter charges a consignment fee of between Rp 1.2 million and Rp 1.5 million per head of cattle and can take up to a week to arrive at its destination, while the KM Camara takes only four days.

The vessel, operated by state shipping company PT Pelni, was launched in NTT on Dec. 12 as part of the government'€™s maritime highway program.

Serving the Jakarta-NTT route, the KM Camara was initially assigned to transport cattle bought by Bulog from NTT farmers and businessmen to Jakarta in order to help stabilize beef supplies and prices.

The second voyage of the KM Camara at the end of December, however, reportedly returned empty after local farmers and businessmen refused to sell their cattle to Bulog at Rp 35,000 ($2.50) per kilogram live weight, much lower than the price paid by private shippers.

Separately, PT Bumi Tirta operational manager Buce Frans said cattle traders who used the services of the livestock vessel paid only for shipping costs, with the beasts sold directly in Jakarta according to market price.

'€œPT Bumi Tirta has been given a quota of 50 head of cattle. The remaining space is given to our colleagues in Kupang and Sumba,'€ said Buce.

Buce praised the NTT provincial administration for responding to the complaints of traders by allowing them to directly sell cattle to Jakarta according to market price.

'€œI hope the central government will provide more livestock vessels. With a delivery and sales system like that, we could deliver once a fortnight. We [Bumi Tirta] should have sent 200 head of cattle today, but we were limited to 50,'€ Buce added.