Students receiving meals under the free nutritious meal program at the Special School for Students with Special Needs in Jakarta earlier this year. Image: Shutterstock.

It is hard to imagine a more ambitious Government policy than the one new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto formally launched in January this year.

His free nutritious meal program is striking in both size and scale.

In line with his pledge during the Presidential elections, Mr Prabowo has implemented a policy to provide free nutritionally-dense meals to every school child and pregnant woman across the country – some 80 million people a day – in order to combat malnutrition and stimulate economic growth.

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

Originally proposed as a free lunch and milk program, the initiative has triggered predictions of significant new demand opportunities for Australian cattle, beef and dairy exports to help support its requirements.

However, four months into operation, and despite the President’s unswerving commitment to making his signature election pledge a reality, it appears unlikely the program will translate directly into substantial additional opportunities for Australian exporters, at least in the short term.

The main challenge lies in the program’s enormous cost.

To fund it, the government has had to pull money out of other budget areas, drawing criticism of fiscal unsustainability and putting the President’s political popularity at risk.

Yet even with billions of dollars directed to the program so far, the budget has not been sufficient to cover the cost of including more expensive milk and/or red meat in the free meals.

While the initial plan proposed spending 15,000 Indonesian Rupiah (approximately AUD $1.50) per recipient per day, that figure was revised down to 10,000 IDR (AUD $1) when the program launched in January.

As a result the free meals that have been provided so far contain chicken, one egg, rice and stir-fried vegetables, but no milk or red meat.

The program aims to provide 17 million free meals per day by the end of this year, with an ultimate target of growing to 82 million free meals per day by 2029.

Any future funding increases are expected to prioritise scaling up the number of meals provided rather than incorporating more costly protein sources.

However, as Helen Fadma from Meat & Livestock Australia in Jakarta explained to Beef Central this week, the MLA team in Indonesia is working to show meal providers how small amounts of beef can be incorporated within the existing budget to boost nutritional content of free meals.

During a panel session at last week’s two-day LEP cattle expo and conference in Jakarta, a chef discussed how 100 grams of red meat could be utilised within the lunch program budget, such as through providing beef mince with stir-fried vegetables to increase each meal’s nutrient density.

An initiative of Livecorp and MLA, this year’s LEP Expo was the 10th such annual event, attracting more than 40 Australian stakeholders and more than 400 Indonesian cattle industry representatives.

Pictured at last week’s LEP Expo in Jakarta were (left to right) David Beatty, Group Manager, Meat & Livestock Australia; Dane Roberts, Counsellor (Agriculture), Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; David Galvin, Chairman, Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council; Dr. drh. Makmun, MSc , Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services; Andrew O’Sullivan, Minister Counsellor (Agriculture), Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Lloyd Hick, President, Cattle Board, AgForce Queensland; Romy Carey, CEO, NT Cattleman’s Association; Didiek Purwanto, Chairman, GAPUSPINDO; and Greg Pankhurst, President, Queensland Livestock Exporters’ Association. Picture: LiveCorp.