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Increased cattle population behind decline in beef imports, says ministry
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Homegrown: The government has allocated Rp 1.1 trillion (US$82.47 million) for an artificial insemination program to increase its cattle population. (JP/Panca Nugraha)
T
he Agriculture Ministry's husbandry and animal health directorate general claims that the increased cattle population through its artificial insemination (Upsus SIWAB) program had caused a decline in imported beef since 2016.
Data at the directorate general shows that Indonesia imported 147,851 tons of beef in 2016 and 120,789 tons in 2017. This year, the country has imported 69,168 tons of beef in the first half, from a projected 113,510 tons of imported beef.
“If beef imports do not exceed the projection this year, it means that the import volume has declined since 2016,” said husbandry and animal health director general I Ketut Diarmita on Monday, as reported by kompas.com.
Ketut said the ministry was working to realize food resilience by increasing the national cattle population through the Upsus SIWAB program, which was introduced in 2015.
He said that the government had readied 4.78 million vials of frozen bull semen in 2017 through three artificial insemination facilities: the BIBB in Singosari, East Java, the BIB in Lembang and the BIBD in South Kalimantan.
The program successfully impregnated 1.89 million cows in year, but only 911,135 cows carried their pregnancy through birth, Ketut said. Meanwhile, the cattle population in 2017 totaled 18.54 million cattle, a 3.84 percent growth from 2016.
He added that this year, 804,753 calves had been born through the program by Aug. 13, out of the targeted 1.68 million calves for 2018, and that the ministry was aiming for a cattle population of 25 million by 2021. (bbn)
