Livestock Shipping within Indonesia to be Boosted

While Indonesia does not want to continue the live cattle trade between Australia and Indonesia, and is promoting self sufficiency there is currently a big black hole in the internal cattle transport within Indonesia, as well as some doubts that they can actually produce enough animals, even in the long term, to meet demand.

It will have to be by ship, between the eastern islands and west Java, and today in Darwin the Indonesian transport mnister who was here to see how Australia transports livestock, announced that new ships and ports were being built to handle the cattle.

Several large vessels able to carry 1500 head each plus port facilities at Sumba in NTT [ Nusa Timor Tenggara] and near Lampung in west Java, are planned.  Realistically, they are 18 - 24 months away, maybe longer.

Who knows how much the beef demand will increase during this time?

It was an absolute essential option if animals were to be moved from production areas in NTT [ mainly Sumba] to west Java where the demand is growing.  Also relevant is the issue of flooding around Jakarta, with the capital also possibly being moved elsewhere, which could also influence the live cattle trade centres.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, and how good will be the handling, transport and slaughter procedures.

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