REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Ministry of Agriculture will not raise import quota of beef until the end of 2012 despite shortage. Indonesia needs at least 484,000 tonnes of beef, while domestic supply is only 399,000 tonnes.

"We cannot increase the import quota because we only have little time," Deputy Minister of Agriculture Rusman Heriawan said on Wednesday.

In 2012, Indonesia imports 92,000 tonnes of frozen beef, much smaller than previous years. Indonesia imported 100,000 tonnes of beef in 2011 and 120,000 tonnes in 2010.

However, he denied that the scarcity and soaring price of beef was caused by import reduction. "It is more about infrastructure matter," he said. Farmers face hard time transporting cattle from production center to city, such as Jakarta, West Java, and Banten.

For a short term, the ministry will get the supply of 5,000 cattle from Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB). "Yet, transport is still our problem," he said.

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