Indonesia suspends importation of Indian buffalo meat, but many believe ban will not last
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The Indonesian Government has suspended the importation of Indian buffalo meat following a ruling by the nation's Constitutional Court, but there are many who believe the ban will not last.
Last week the court ruled that meat from countries prone to foot and mouth disease (FMD) could only be imported under emergency circumstances.
Jakarta-based veterinarian consultant Ross Ainsworth said according to the information he had, the country or zone within the country had to be declared free of foot and mouth disease.
"In terms of India, all you have to do is go to the World Organisation for Animal Health website and you will see that India is not free according to the rules," Dr Ainsworth said.
"There are concerns that it is possible to transmit the virus through frozen meat.
"It has occurred on rare occasions in other parts of Asia, but given the fact that there has been millions of tonnes of product sent from India to all parts of South East Asia, and there has been a very small number of FMD outbreaks, that have only been accused of being a result of the Indian meat and never proven, the risk is pretty low."
Dr Ainsworth said the Government's reaction to the court's ruling had shocked the industry.
"I certainly thought that the courts would agree with the Government, so I guess [industry is] surprised and there is an expectation that something else will occur to sort it out," he said.
Country needs cheap meat
While the Indonesian Government has not yet publicly responded to the court's ruling, Dr Ainsworth believed the suspension would not remain for long.
"The political leadership in Indonesia wants this Indian meat to be imported and they have the power to do whatever they want, so I suspect they will make it happen however it needs to occur," he said.
"The Indonesian Government is interested in providing cheap meat for its population and I don't blame them.
"This stuff [Indian buffalo meat] is half the price [compared to fresh Australian beef].
"It is adequate in terms of a lesser quality beef product, so I don't blame the Government for being keen to introduce it and reduce the prices for millions and millions of Indonesian consumers who can't afford the more expensive product."
While the ban has resulted in the immediate halt of the importation of Indian buffalo meat, Dr Ainsworth said there would be no instant influence on Australia's live cattle trade.
"Just say hypothetically all future supply of Indian meat is banned, we will have to wait for all of that meat to work its way through the system before there will be any impact on the demand for Australian imported cattle," he said.
"So that could be six or more months down the track at least."
But if the Indian buffalo trade is to continue, Dr Ainsworth predicts it will have a dramatic impact on Australia.
"Let's say the Indian meat recovers and is able to come in again, it appears as though it has the capacity to take about 50 per cent of the demand," he said.
"So if the demand for Australian cattle is halved and we were bringing in roughly 600,000 head before, it might go to something like 300,000 a year.
"If that is the case it probably won't be a huge problem for northern Australia at the moment because numbers are down, but in the future that might have a bit more of a serious affect.
Topics: beef-cattle, agricultural-prices, agricultural-marketing, cattle-feedlots, trade, agricultural-policy, darwin-0800, indonesia
