A senior Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture official has given the strongest signal yet that the Indonesian Government is on the cusp of opening its market to live cattle imports from Brazil, and possibly New Zealand as well.

Director General of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health at the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Suganda, told media in Jakarta that the signing of a new regulation will give Brazil access to the country’s large import market for live cattle.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto addresing crowds during the 2024 Presidential election campaign.

“With the signing of the 2nd revision of government regulation number 4 of 2016, we can open from Brazil which has almost the same climate as ours, namely a tropical country,” he said in a press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, according to local media outlet Kompas.

He explained that the import of live cattle from Brazil has been prohibited previously because of the prevalence of Foot and Mouth Disease in Brazilian livestock, with some areas of the country still not free from FMD without vaccination.

However, the Ministry of Agriculture would ensure that live cattle imported from Brazil would go through strict procedures and the cattle would be taken from FMD-free areas without vaccination, he said.

“There have been no FMD cases in Brazil for a very long time,” the Director General said, according to Kompas.

“We also hope that the world animal health agency will upgrade its status to free without vaccination.”

In addition to opening up opportunities to import live cattle from Brazil, the second revision of PP Number 4 of 2016 would also potentially open the way for other countries such as New Zealand to send livestock by ship, the Kompas article indicated.

As reported by Beef Central recently, there have been strong signs that Indonesia is moving to open access to its market for live cattle to countries such as Brazil in order to broaden its dairy cattle supply options to fulfill President Prabowo Subiantio’s ambitious free milk and lunch program for Indonesian school students.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture stated in September that Indonesia and Brazil had signed a memorandum of understanding with a plan to import 100,000 tropical dairy cattle from Brazil to Indonesia to help support the new free milk policy.

Australia, which is a short 4-5 day sea journey away, has been the sole supplier of live cattle to Indonesia for many years, shipping from 300,000 to 600,000 tropically-adapted feeder cattle per year to Indonesian feedlots in the past decade.

Brazil, which is a five to six week journey by sea from Indonesia, has previously been unable to gain access to Indonesia due the presence of Foot and Mouth Disease in its cattle sector, but earlier this year declared itself free of FMD without vaccination.

It is awaiting formal World Organization for Animal Health recognition of that status, which it hopes it to be approved in May 2025.