Jakarta, Aug 15 (Antara) -- As production centers lack infrastructure to distribute the commodity to consumers, the price of beef has soared in the country.
Making improvements to infrastructure and ensuring proper management of the system used in the beef business can help regulate the price of beef to a fair level. Therefore, the government needs to improve infrastructure facilities and the management of the beef business, according to a legislator.
"These efforts are needed to ensure smoother and more efficient distribution of meat from production centers to consumers," Rofi Munawar, a member of Commission IV, which oversees agricultural affairs, of the House of Representatives, said here on Saturday.
If the government can improve the distribution and management system, he added, consumers will enjoy beef at a reasonable price, while cattle farmers will also earn great profit.
Munawar, who is a politician of the Prosperous Justice Party, explained that the scarcity of meat in the market of late was caused by imbalances between supply and demand from consumers.
Inadequate infrastructure is one of the constraints hampering distribution.
It is feared that shortage of meat in the domestic market will become an annual occurrence if local livestock farms cannot produce enough due to insufficient infrastructure.
This will force the government to continue to import the commodity to stabilize its price in the country.
"It will be difficult to lower the increasing price of meat if only an intervention policy is implemented, such as importing cattle and releasing stock," he remarked.
Over the past few days, the price of beef has shot up to Rp130 to Rp140 thousand per kilogram, far above the average normal price of Rp90 thousand per kilogram.
There will continue to be a shortage of supply if the rapid changes in the price of meat are not balanced with adequate production, according to Munawar.
Over the past few days, meat traders in several regions across the country have gone on strike and have temporarily stopped selling beef. For instance, beef traders in Bakasi, a Jakarta buffer town, stopped selling the commodity.
The move to stop the sale of meat from August 10 to 12 was called for by the Meat Traders Association of Jakarta and its satellite towns of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek).
"The price of meat now burdens consumers as it continues to increase after the fasting month of Ramadan in July from Rp95 thousand per kilogram to Rp145 thousand per kilogram," Sunarti (44), a beef trader at Pasar Jatiasih Market in Bekasi, stated on Sunday.
Munawar pointed out that the price of beef after the fasting month in July rose to Rp110 thousand per kilogram. Now, the price has reached Rp120 kilogram per kilogram. During the Eid (post-fasting month) festivities, the average price was Rp86 thousand per kilogram.
Moreover, former trade minister Rachmat Gobel, who was replaced by Thomas Lembong on Friday (August 14), said last week that the price of meat had reached Rp140 thousand per kilogram.
"We are studying the cause behind this price rise. The average price of meat in 30 provinces is over Rp100 thousand per kilogram. In the remaining four provinces, the price is lower than that," Gobel added.
In addition, Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman claimed that at the feedlot level, the stocks of meat are adequate to meet demand for four months.
"We conducted field checks and held discussions with owners of cattle ranches. Based on our calculations with the trade ministry, stocks are available and are adequate to meet the need of the commodity for four months," he affirmed during a press conference on handling the drought on Monday.
During the field checks, Sulaiman noted that his ministry had found a stock of 221 thousand heads of cattle.
"The latest estimate now places the number of cattle stocks at 160 thousand heads, which will suffice for four months if monthly consumption is held at 40 thousand," the minister explained.
Furthermore, to stabilize the price of beef in the domestic market and meet the demand for the commodity at home, the Indonesian government has decided to import 50 thousand heads of cattle and to conduct market operations, as a short-term solution to overcome the current shortage of beef in various regions.
"In a coordination meeting, the government decided to import cattle and conduct market operations to provide a short-term solution to the scarcity of meat in the market. The market operations will be conducted by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog)," Sofyan Djalil, who was transferred from the post of the chief economic minister to that of the minister of national development planning on Friday, said.
The government will give Bulog the task of importing 50 thousand heads of cattle and to conduct market operations.
Bulog confirmed its readiness to launch market operations with its current available stock of 465 tons. "Bulog will focus its market operations in regions where the price of meat has been increasing, such as in Jakarta, West Java, and Serang in Banten," President Director of Bulog Djarot Kusumayakti stated.
The logistics agency revealed that it will expand its operations to other regions after taking into account its stock of only 465 tons. "We cannot respond to them all," Kusumayakti remarked.
Therefore, the Agriculture Ministry hopes that with imports, the beef scarcity in the market will be overcome. However, the decision to import is only a short-term solution.
According to Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry Hari Priyono, the government has decided to increase the supply of beef through market operations and has assigned Bulog with the task of importing live cows ready for slaughtering.
The country has imported feedlot cows mainly from Australia, but the government has cut imports from the neighboring country lately to protect the domestic livestock farming industry
The ministry has also conducted impromptu inspections at feedlot operators suspected of holding stocks. ***3***(A014/INE/ f001)EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 15-08-2015 16:16:14 |
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