INDIAN buffalo meat (carabeef) is now legally entering the Indonesian market with the wholehearted backing of the Indonesian government in an attempt to moderate the price of beef to the consumer.
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Indonesia flagged this move back in November 2013 when then trade minister Gita Wirjawan announced that the law that dealt with imports of live cattle and beef should be revised in order to diversify sources of supply and meet rising domestic demand.
As it then stood, the law restricted Indonesia’s cattle and beef imports from countries that were categorised as FMD free.
Enabling legislative changes started in October 2014 setting in train the ability to import from countries that had established FMD free zones.
Industry in Australia seemed unconvinced at that stage that the legislative changes would progress through to fulfilment.
It was thought that the changes would be successfully challenged by a groundswell of protest from the estimated five million traditional small-scale cattle farmers that represent Indonesia’s domestic cattle industry as well as cattle importers, lot feeders and traders.
History had shown that when other SE Asian countries started imports of cheap Indian beef their domestic breeding herds declined sharply due to poor profitability.
As it turned out the farmers were surprisingly silent.
As to the importers and lot feeders, it seems the hardline stance the government has recently taken toward them has taken any wind out of their sails. Earlier this year the government leaned very heavily on them with accusations of withholding stock from market and profiteering from supply manipulation.
The regulatory provisions were concluded in June this year but not in time to allow the first of the meat to arrive before the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr at the end of Ramadan. The first of 80,000 tonnes ordered for 2016 delivery started to arrive in August.
How safe is carabeef?
THE obvious question this now begs is the likelihood of FMD virus entering Indonesia via carabeef importation from India and what implications that has for Indonesia and Australia.
If the Russian experience is any guide, concern about the possibility of the virus entering Indonesia by such means might seem justified.
Driven by the economic impact of western sanctions, Russia moved quickly in late 2014 to facilitate importation of carabeef from India.
Trade got under way by the second quarter in 2015 but Russia then applied a temporary ban on product from India’s Uttar Pradesh state in June in response to reported cases of FMD. By early October Russia had imposed a full ban on buffalo meat imports from India after further discovery of FMD virus in a consignment.
But of course as we have learned from years of experience with beef trading partners, finding something wrong depends not only on how often and how hard you look but also your motivation.
Russia wanted meat because of the sanctions but had also announced to the world its confidence in becoming a net exporter of beef products. Russia had reason to look closely at the Indian product and one would think that Indonesia’s present FMD free status would provide similar incentive.
The first line of defence therefore should be vigilance on Indonesia’s part and hopefully a willingness to act to maintain its hard-won achievements in biosecurity.
But the presence of the virus in a consignment of meat is one thing; having it lead to an FMD outbreak is another. One way this can happen is through feeding of swill containing meat scraps to pigs.
The last outbreak of FMD in the US in 1929 was attributed to this cause and swill feeding remains a huge biosecurity concern as demonstrated by its causation of the South African FMD outbreak in 2000.
Risk and reality
IN the endemic FMD countries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and peninsular Malaysia, pig raising is a significant animal industry and still characterised by high numbers of smallholder (traditional/backyard) farms associated with low biosecurity.
A swine industry profile report prepared by FAO in 2011 noted that swill feeding was commonly practised at the smallholder level.
But while outbreaks of FMD are common in these countries it is hard to find evidence that swill feeding was implicated as a cause.
Certainly Indian carabeef is exported to these countries.
A recent MLA report quoted Vietnam as India’s largest market in 2014 taking over 660,000t. Malaysia trailed Egypt into third place at 120,000t then Thailand at 85,000t.
To the extent that FMD outbreaks are able to be investigated in these countries, livestock movement appears to be the principal causative factor.
An OIE SEAFMDC (Southeast Asia Foot and Mouth Disease Campaign) report noted illegal movements as the main source of outbreaks in Malaysia and Vietnam and animal movements in general in Thailand. Swill feeding was not mentioned.
How does this in turn relate to Indonesia?
Despite its predominately Muslim population, Indonesia does have a significant number of pigs and quite a lot of smallholder farms. A recent study by the Bogor Agricultural Institute put the former at 8.2 million and the latter at 368,000. The report also describes household leftovers forming part of the pigs’ ration on these small farms.
In the context of swill feeding, Indonesia’s risk profile would therefore seem to have a lot in common with its aforementioned neighbours now that carabeef has arrived.
But the evidence from these countries does not overwhelmingly suggest that the swill factor will result in an outbreak.
Reinforcing this view is the experience of the Philippines. It has a similar pig industry profile to the rest of SE Asia and carabeef was introduced there in 1993. It appeared widely in wet markets in frozen, unprocessed form for many years.
Despite the presence of these risk factors the Philippines was able to progress as a country to FMD Free (without vaccination) status in June 2011.
