Indonesia Plans to Import 2.15 Million Dairy Cows

RI needs additional imports of 2.15 million dairy cows to meet regular milk needs and the Free Milk Drinking program.

KOMPAS/FAKHRI FADLURROHMAN

A worker at a dairy farm named Jamal is pouring milk into a bucket to be filtered before being sold, at one of the dairy farms in the North Pengadegan area, Pancoran, South Jakarta, on Friday (21/7/2023).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Drink Free Milk program will cause the national need for milk to increase drastically. To meet this need, The Ministry of Agriculture plans to import 2.15 million dairy cows from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and the United States.

Free Milk Drinking is a program initiated by Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the presidential and vice presidential candidates who received the highest votes in the 2024 election. The program targets 82.9 million people, including students, religious students, and pregnant women. The total milk requirement for a year is around 4.1 million tons.

The presence of the program has caused the average annual demand for milk to increase from 4.6 million tons to 8.7 million tons. With an average annual milk production of 0.9 million tons, Indonesia will experience a milk deficit of 7.8 million tons per year or the equivalent of 2 million dairy cows.

Also read: Free Milk, Where Does the Milk Come From?

The Secretary of the Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health at the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan), Makmun, stated on Wednesday (17/4/2024) that in the past seven years, 2017-2023, the national milk demand has increased by an average of 6 percent annually. Meanwhile, its production only increases by 1 percent per year.

This shows that the need and national milk production are always unbalanced, so Indonesia has to import milk every year.

KOMPAS/HENDRIYO WIDI

Screenshot of Secretary of the Directorate General of Animal Husbandry and Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Makmun, who was explaining the National Milk Production Improvement program in a Sinar Tani webinar on Wednesday (17/4/2024) in Jakarta, towards achieving food and protein self-sufficiency.

To meet the increasing national demand and at the same time the Free Milk Drinking Program, the Ministry of Agriculture has planned the National Milk Production Improvement Program (PPSN). One of them is by increasing the population of dairy cows, both through imports and artificial insemination.

"At least Indonesia needs to import an additional 2.15 million dairy cows to meet the demand for regular milk consumption and the Free Milk Drinking program. The budget required amounts to approximately 90 trillion rupiahs," he said in the webinar "Supervising Milk Production towards Food and Protein Self-Sufficiency" held by Sinar Tani in Jakarta.

Also read: Pursuing National Dairy Industry Independence

Makmun explained that, apart from regular needs, the Free Milk Drinking program for 24 million elementary school students requires 1.18 million tons of fresh milk. To fulfill this, approximately 300,000 imported milking cows are needed with a budget of Rp 13.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Free Milk Program for 82.9 million students (including elementary school students), students of Islamic boarding schools, and pregnant women requires 4.1 million tons of fresh milk. To fulfill this, approximately 1.1 million imported dairy cows are needed, with a budget of Rp 49.5 trillion.

The government, according to Makmun, will import the dairy cows from Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and the United States. The largest amount will come from Brazil because their climate is similar to Indonesia's, which is tropical.

"Of course, this will be followed by regulatory adjustments and increased monitoring of mouth and hoof disease (PMK), including strengthening cow vaccinations domestically," he said.

Also read: The Thinness of the Protective Shield for Indonesian Dairy Farmers

Referring to the data from the PPSN program, Indonesia plans to import 1.5 million tropical dairy cows from Brazil. In addition, Indonesia will also import 500,000 dairy cows from the United States, 100,000 from Australia, and 50,000 from New Zealand.

Nevertheless, Makmun added that the government is opening opportunities for investment as well as partnerships in dairy cow farming. This involves importers, large-scale farms, small-scale farms, and even farmers.

KOMPAS/NINO CITRA ANUGRAHANTO

Vaccinators injected cattle as part of the inaugural vaccination for foot-and-mouth disease in Klaten Regency, Central Java, on Tuesday (28/6/2022). The region received a quota of 2,200 doses of the vaccine. All of the vaccines must be used up by July 2, 2022.

In the same forum, the Chairman of the Indonesian Dairy Cooperative Association (GKSI), Dedi Setiadi, welcomed the PPSN program. In addition to improving national food and protein resilience, the program can also stimulate upstream-downstream investment in the cattle industry, including empowering small farmers.

However, he requested that the government remain vigilant in preventing the spread of PMK in Indonesia. As a result of PMK, the population of cattle managed by the community decreased by 12,637 to 226,829.

This has led to a decrease in the number of small-scale cattle farmers by 2,231 farmers to 73,563 farmers. The production of fresh milk has also reduced to 1.39 million tons, or about a 30 percent decrease.

"Until now, the impact is still being felt and dairy farmers have not fully recovered from the impact," said Dedi.

Also read: A Year of the FMD Outbreak

Dedi added that since Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) re-emerged in Indonesia, the government has provided sufficient vaccines. Traditional cattle farmers are also becoming more routine in vaccinating their cattle every six months.

Therefore, the availability of vaccines needs to be consistently maintained. Meanwhile, preventing the entry of PMK from foreign countries into Indonesia also needs to be improved in the midst of efforts to increase national cow's milk production.

For the past 32 years, Indonesia has held a status free of PMK. However, since April 28th, 2022, PMK has resurfaced in Indonesia. At that time, 402 beef cattle in Gresik Regency, East Java, were reported to have been infected with PMK.

The case then spread to several regions in Indonesia. The government succeeded in suppressing its spread through vaccination. However, in February 2024, PMK cases resurfaced in Pasuruan Regency, East Java.

The Pasuruan Regency Livestock and Health Agency has recorded 145 cases of animal diseases in the period of seven days, from February 14 to February 20, 2024. Out of that total, 31 cows died.