What’s the Beef?
Importers are causing a furor over reduced import allocation of beef. The government is accused of not having valid data and cattle ranchers are at the mercy of brokers. Why is self-sufficiency in beef being stalled?
February 9, 2011
AN interesting offer found its way into the cellphone of Edris Kurbi, a cattle rancher at Dusun Manjung, Wonogiri, Central Java, on Saturday morning two weeks ago. In the text message a colleague offered to buy a Simmental beef cow belonging to him at Rp24,000 per kilogram (live weight) to transport to Jakarta.
Edris was temporarily attracted because for the past three years his cattle was valued at Rp20,000 per kilogram only. “The price is go
...