REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Suswono considers parliament has the possibility to revise Law No. 18/2009 on Livestock and Livestock Health. Such revision could change country based policy to zone based policy in cattle import regulation.

Currently, country based system in cattle import bans Indonesia to trade with nations that are not fully free from foot and mouth disease (FMD). The policy poses some difficulties in Brazilian cattle import case. Indonesia still considers the country is not FMD-free, the government bans any cattle import from the country. On the other hand, Brazil offers competitive price for its cattle. 

"Brazil is far, but it is very competitive," Suswono said on Tuesday. 

He added that the cattle breeders would also face some difficulties with country based policy should some problems emerge. Once a disease occurs in one of thousands islands of Indonesia, all Indonesian livestock cannot be exported.

Zone based policy was imposed in 2009, yet an appeal caused Indonesian Supreme Court granted country based policy instead in August 2010. Now the ministry underlined the importance for  the House of  Representative to reverse the policy.  

The availability of beef in Indonesia is mostly from local in around 399,000 tonnes or meet 82.5 percent of the demand. The rest are from the import in around 85,000 tonnes.

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