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Vietnamese Milk Company to Assist Free School Lunch Program
WINDONESIA August 1, 2024
A cow dairy farmer picks up a jug for milking cows. (Frisian Flag Indonesia)
Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman statedthat a company from Vietnam is planning to invest in Indonesia. The company will produce cow milk.
He said that the increased production of cow milk is expected to be able to reduce the current import rate, while also supporting the planned free lunch program of President-elect Prabowo Subianto and Vice President-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
"We will invite [potential Vietnamese investors, and] they will come. They need 100,000 hectares of land, the government will prepare the land, then they will produce 1.8 million tons of milk," Amran said in Jakarta on July 28, 2024.
He explained that several areas that have the potential to be used for cow milk production are likely to be in Eastern Indonesia or Sumatra Island, taking into account climate conditions that are suitable for dairy cows.
"The planned location is in the eastern region [of Indonesia], Sumatra, or Lampung. [The investment is] one of the preparations [for the free lunch program]," Amran said.
The Minister explained that Indonesia's current production capacity for cow milk is about 1 million tons, which is still below the country'sper capita consumption. Hence, the government still has to import cow milk, and the need for it will be much greater when the free lunch program is enacted.
However, Amran assessed that the free lunch program will have a fairly large economic impact nationally, because the circulation of money that occurs through shopping for food raw materials at the farmer level will be greater than before.
"Nutritious food does not stand alone, there is downstream [industry]. [In the] upstream [industry] there is rice, chili, chicken and others we are targeting to use domestic production. If this [free school lunch program] works it will drive the economy," he said.
Source: www.idxchannel.com