A large shipment of heifers, believed to be the biggest single delivery of breeding cattle exported from Australia to Indonesia, will depart Darwin for Surabaya this week.
There are now strong indications ships will begin moving from Australia to Indonesia this weekend, following an announcement from Indonesia’s trade minister overnight that the country has now formally abandoned its current quota system.
Permits for second trimester cattle imports to Indonesia have been distributed to importers, allowing shipments for the May to August period to finally get underway.
Livestock exporters have welcomed indications that Indonesia will extend the validity of cattle import permits from three months to four months.
The book has not yet closed on opening Indonesian cattle import permits for 2016, with exporters finding to their surprise that the new permits issued earlier this week are valid for only three months, not the extended four month period they had been expecting.
Indonesian ministers meeting in Jakarta this week have reportedl set 2016 cattle import quotas at 600,000 head, slightly below the volume imported in 2015.
The Indonesian Government has provided its first indication as to how many cattle it intends to import in 2016, but importers are still yet to learn how many permits they will be allocated for the first and crucial pre-Ramadan period from January to April.
After weeks of speculation about fourth quarter cattle import volumes by Indonesia, confirmation was received last night when the country’s Ministry of Trade began releasing permits to importers.
Australian livestock exporters hope a visit to Jakarta by Australian trade minister Andrew Robb today can help to get discussions about annual import permit allocations back on the agenda.
Shrinking supplies of cattle and continued uncertainty as to when and how many import permits will be released by Indonesia for the fourth quarter has cattle exporters stuck on the horns of a dilemma.
