JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia is encouraging domestic cattle ranchers to import breeding cows, targeting 400,000 head in 2025, to supply meat and milk for the government’s free school meals programme, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
Indonesia’s programme to give free meals to children and pregnant women began this week with 570,000 meals distributed to schools around the country.
This will be scaled up, the government has said, with the target of feeding more than 80 million children and expectant mothers, with an estimated total cost of $28 billion.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sudaryono said in a statement that out of the 400,000 cows he hoped ranchers would import this year, half should be dairy cows.
In addition to the breeding cows, Indonesia set import quotas of 350,000 heads of cattle for fattening this year to supply the domestic market, agriculture ministry official Imron Suandy said.
In the next five years, Jakarta is targeting to import 2 million breeding cows, so that over time, demand for beef and milk for the school meals programme could be met with local supply, Sudaryono, who goes by one name, said.
The ministry did not say what incentive the government would offer ranchers for the imports.
Indonesia typically imports cattle from Australia and its top source of milk is New Zealand. Authorities have said it was looking into allowing cattle imports from Brazil.
(Reporting by Bernadette Christina; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Michael Perry and Louise Heavens)
