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n a bid to help meet the demand for an additional 650 tons of milk a day, the East Java provincial administration is importing 575 Holstein dairy cows from Australia, Vice Governor Saifullah Yusuf said.

The cows, he said, had been transported in batches through Juanda International Airport in Surabaya since Monday, using cargo planes.

The first batch transported 200 cows, the second 200 cows and the third 175 cows. "The cows will be quarantined for 14 days at the Tandes Quarantine Center in Surabaya, before they are sent to Malang, Pasuruan and Trenggalek to be nurtured for milk by farmers in the three regencies," he said.

The imported dairy cows, according to Saifullah, are between one-and-a-half and two years old, weigh between 360 and 480 kilograms each, have a gestation of between four and six months, and are able to produce a minimum of 5,500 liters of milk a year.

"Apart from increasing fresh milk products, the imported cows are also expected to improve the quality of dairy cows in East Java."

He added that the provincial administration had spent Rp 15 billion on the cows and their supporting needs, including food, medicine, cages and five units of cold storage machines to store the milk.

Head of East Java Husbandry Agency Tadjuddin Nur Kadir said the import was an urgent decision to fulfill the province's need for fresh milk. "As producing a strong native cow population takes dozens of years, import is the best solution to the problem at the moment."

Tadjuddin said that with a population of 21,000 cows, the province so far could only produce 950 tons of milk per day while the need for the commodity in the region was 1,600 tons per day.

Of the produced 950 tons of milk, he said, 850 tons are distributed to milk-processing industries in the province and for local consumption.

The remaining 100 tons are sent to other provinces such as West Java and Yogyakarta.

In term of productivity, according to Tadjuddin, the imported cows were economically more profitable as each can produce up to 48 liters of milk a day while local species normally can produce only about 10 liters of milk a day.

Separately, chairman of the association of milk cooperatives' (GKSI) East Java chapter, Sulistyono, expressed hope that the imported cows would eventually reduce the province's dependence on imported fresh milk and also help convince the public that local milk products were of no less quality compared to the imported one. "The dependence on imported milk is very high, not only in the provincial level but at the national level," Sulistyono said.