Indonesia rejects egg imports from Malaysia
The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture has recently rejected the proposal proposed by the chamber of commerce of Riau islands province to import eggs from Malaysia.
One of the government’s considerations, based on the regulation number 18/2009 about livestock and animal health, is that animal derived food import is allowed if local production and supply can’t meet the demand.
Until now the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture just allows the importing of egg processed products such as egg powder, white egg powder and egg pulp which are not available in Indonesia.
In that case, the government said that local production and with additional supply from North Sumatera could meet Riau islands province’s demand for eggs. The local demand is around 42.5 tonnes per day, while the local supply is around 7.5 tonnes per day and the shortage can be supplied from North Sumatera.
However, the chamber of commerce of Riau islands province has a different argument. They argued that the proposal was aimed to prevent the skyrocketing price of eggs on Christmas and New Year day. “Eggs distributed from Medan, North Sumatera are valued IDR 825 per egg, while if imported from Malaysia, the price will be cheaper, IDR 680 per egg. Besides that, eggs distribution from Medan to Batam, Riau islands takes about two days, while if we import from Malaysia, it will only takes about three hours. Freshness factor is taken into consideration on the proposal,” said the chamber of commerce of Riau islands province officer.
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