National

Department of Agriculture to Change Beef Import Regulations
Monday, 31 October, 2005 | 21:49 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono is to revise the decision of the Indonesian Minister of Agriculture regarding beef import regulations.

This ministerial decision stipulated that meat could only be imported into Indonesia could from countries that are free of foot and mouth disease.

According to Apriyantono, the revised decision will permit the import of meat from countries where some regions are not yet free from foot and mouth and hoof disease.

Therefore, even though a country has not yet been declared free of the disease, some regions are already free.

“We can import meat from these regions,” Apriyantono told Tempo several days ago.

Apriyantono said that currently beef could only be imported from New Zealand and Australia because these two countries have been declared free of foot and mouth disease.

However, the department of agriculture is now reviewing the possibility of importing from Argentine and Hungary.

Once the review into the disease and the changes to the regulations are completed done, meat can be imported from Argentine and Hungary this December.

It is hoped that the import of meat from these two countries will bring meat prices down.

The price of imported meat from Australia and New Zealand is quite expensive because these two countries have no competition.

However, Apriyantono said that there would be no limitation on the quota of imported meat from Argentine and Hungary.

‘It depends on the market mechanism. We will not impose any quota,” he stated.(Ewo Raswa-Tempo News Room)