Indonesia

Indonesia releases Q3 permits for 167,000 cattle

James Nason, 30/06/2014

Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade has issued third quarter permits for the importation of 167,000 live cattle from July to September.

The permits allow the import of 133,000 feeder cattle and 34,000 slaughter cattle.

Third quarter import allocations typically ease compared to second quarter volumes when importers look to fill feedlots in preparation for Ramadan and Idul Fitri.

Indonesia imported 286,000 head in the second quarter, which comprised 199,895 head of feedlot cattle, 81,205 head of slaughter-ready cattle and 5000 heifers, the Jakarta Post reported on Saturday.

Trade Ministry foreign trade director general Bachrul Chairi told media in Indonesi that the ministry has not issued any permits for productive heifers in the third quarter due to the absence of proposals by importers.

Bachrul said between 120,000 and 150,000 head of live cattle will be slaughtered for the Idul Fitri celebrations this year which fall at the end of July.

The Indonesian Government has vowed to maintain the price of beef below Rp 100,000 (US$8.34) per kilogram during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.

Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi hinted that the government had mulled raising the reference beef price by 13 percent to Rp 85,000 per kilogram after Idul Fitri.

The reference price, which is currently settled at Rp 76,000 per kilogram, serves as a benchmark for policy makers to allow or halt imports.

“I hope the beef price stays at Rp 85,000 per kilogram and we’ll keep it at that level because it provides an incentive for local breeders to invest [in the breeding sector] again,” he said, adding that the expansion of local breeding would ease importation pressure.

At the start of this year Indonesia said it plans to import 750,000 cattle this year.

Following imports of 160,000 cattle in the first quarter and 286,000 cattle in the second quarter, the third quarter allocations will, if filled, take total imports for the year to date by September to 613,000.

That would leave a further 137,000 cattle to be imported in the final quarter to meet the 750,000 head target for the year.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your comment will not appear until it has been moderated.
Contributions that contravene our Comments Policy will not be published.

Comments

Get Beef Central's news headlines emailed to you -
FREE!