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Beef Supply Added
Jakarta - Feedlots are answering urges from the government to add beef cattle to guarantee the availability of meat during Eid al-Fitr. Hopefully the stock will be enough until after Eid al-Fitr.
Coordinator of the Indonesia Beef Producer and Feedlot Association (Apfindo), Dayan Antoni, on Sunday (5/9) in Jakarta said the government requested there be a stock of 20,000 tons of beef at the end of each month in hope that supply could fulfill demand and price fluctuation could be avoided.
But, after Eid al-Fitr, beef supply could be sparse. Only 6,000 tons of beef is estimated to be available, hence feedlots need to add more cattle for slaughter in September.
“At first the government requested an addition of 11,000 beef cattle, but feedlots were able to do better by adding 12,000 cattle, which equals to 2,160 tons of beef,” said Dayan.
Because the cattle will be slaughtered ahead of time, they won’t reach their optimum weight. Dayan said that beef demand during the fasting month and Eid al-Fitr is around 50,000 to 60,000 tons.
Director General of Livestock Services from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tjeppy D Soedjana said the decision to add beef cattle stock was produced from an agreement with Apfindo where feedlots were required to gradually release 140,000 beef cattle for slaughter. Feedlots will release cattle to their respective distribution areas to fulfill increased demand of beef during Ramadan.
Executive Director of Apfindo, Joni Liano, said the additional stock is prepared to supply beef to Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bandung, and North Sumatera.
Joni said that with more cattle allocated for slaughter in September, stocks in feedlots in the next month will be sparse. Therefore more cattle should be added so feedlots could produce to its optimum level.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that feeder cattle import allocated for 2010 is 452,000 heads, 41% lower than last year. From the allocated amount, import permits have been issued for 419,958 heads and have been realized for 348,253 cattle. Until last August, there were 147,141 heads of cattle available for slaughter in feedlots.
Specifically for meat, 73,000 tons have been allocated for 2010. So far only 56,000 tons have been realized, leaving another 17,000 tons available for import. Because this figure was considered to small, another allocation of 5,000 tons has been added for beef import.
Beef demand in August 2010 was only 53,000 tons. It was supplied from local cattle (34,000 tons), imported feeder cattle (6,000 tons), and imported beef (12,000 tons).
Joni said that ideally there should be an addition of 50,000 feeder cattle imported each month starting from October 2010 until December 2010. This way, enough stock will be available until the end of the year. (MAS)
Source : Kompas