Beefing Up the Stock: Policy Reform to Lower Beef Prices in Indonesia
Authors
Hizkia Respatiadi
Hana Nabila
Beef in nearly twice as expensive in Indonesia as in the international market. Due to this, Indonesia’s beef consumption per capita is one of the lowest in the region. Low beef consumption results in 29% of children under the age of 5 to suffer from chronic malnutrition. To solve this issue, the government has proposed shortening the distribution process and implement a price ceiling.
However, a better alternative would be increasing the amount of imported beef into the country. This is because imported beef has a much shorter distribution chain and is nearly half the price of domestic beef and that this will provide consumers with more affordable sources of beef. In doing so we recommend several regulatory policy changes, these includes the removal of the price ceiling, the simplification of the import licensing proses and the allowance of imported beef to be sold in traditional markets, while revisions should be made to Minister of Trade (MOT) regulation 59/2016 article 9 (1 and 2).
