News Dairy
Indonesia restricts dairy imports after farmer protests
The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture is not issuing new import permits to five importing dairy companies until they start buying milk from Indonesian farmers again. Minister Andi Amram Sulaiman of agriculture has decided this in response to farmer protests.
Dairy farmers, especially from Central Java, are angry that they are not being better protected, Indonesian media report. During protests last weekend, farmers poured out more than 50 tons of milk. They wanted to express their anger over processors not buying locally produced milk in recent weeks. This, along with the large amount of cheap imported milk entering the country, led many small farmers to take to the streets. They are left with relatively expensive milk of domestic origin.
Not grant import licenses to five dairy companies
Agriculture Minister Andi Amram Suleiman finds it important enough to take immediate action and not grant import licenses to five dairy companies for the purchase of (cheaper) milk from abroad until further notice. Suleiman did not find it very difficult to introduce the import license. There are elections coming up, a reason why, according to Indonesian newspapers, more politicians support Suleiman's actions. It has not been disclosed which dairy companies will temporarily not receive a license.
FrieslandCampina is also active in Indonesia as a processor and importer of dairy products. These measures do not seem to affect the company. The company does business with 30,000 local farmers, who are organized in 20 local cooperatives. They supply 400 tons of milk to FrieslandCampina per day. FrieslandCampina's new factory just outside Jakarta processes 700,000 tons of dairy products per day. The plan is to expand further to 1 million tons per day. A large part of the milk comes from abroad, but according to a company spokesperson, FrieslandCampina is also looking to increase local supply.
