"Bali governor Mangku Pastika will submit a letter of protest against the central government`s policy on cow imports from Australia," chief of Bali animal husbandry department, I Putu Sumantra said here on Sunday.
Bali is the strongest in objecting the policy because it could affect its farmers` cow price, he said when asked about the government`s intention of importing some 180,000 cows from Australia in October 2011.
The Indonesian livestock population reached about 14.4 million heads in the different parts of the country and adequate to meet domestic needs, he said.
Putu suggested the central government to make use of the local products before deciding to import cows.
Prior to stopping cow imports from Australia, the price of beef ranged Rp16,000 to Rp17,000 per kg in Bali. Now the price had been raised to Rp22,000 - Rp23,000 per kilogram.
In the meantime, Agriculture Minister Suswono said in Jakarta recently that cow consumption at home reached 2.5 million to 3 million per annum.
He said the government still has to import cows to meet the domestic need because of constraints in the local distribution system.
"We still need some 10 percent as we could only meet 90 percent but when demand for meat is increasing we have to choose the import option," he said.
(Uu.B003/H-NG)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
