Jakarta. Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman revealed on Monday that at least five major investors from four nations have expressed interest in opening dairy farms in Indonesia.

Amran said his office is currently in talks with the Vietnamese government to facilitate investment in the sector by companies from the Southeast Asian neighbor.

“There are also five dairy companies with serious intention of investing in Indonesia. They are based in Qatar, Brazil, and the United States," Amran said at his office in Jakarta.

He claimed that Vietnamese diplomats have repeatedly requested a meeting with his ministry to discuss potential investments by Vietnamese companies in the sector.

The meeting was delayed because it’s been only a week since President Prabowo Subianto’s cabinet was inaugurated and all ministers were gathered for a three-day retreat in Magelang last weekend, Amran said.

He said the meeting with the Vietnamese delegation has been rescheduled for Friday.

The dairy industry requires vast farming areas but Amran said the government has prepared the lands in several regions across Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

"We have many areas those investors can choose from," he said.

The Prabowo administration has vowed to provide free nutritious food for children and expectant mothers nationwide and the ambitious program will require a huge amount of dairy products, among other things.

Dadan Hindayana, head of the National Nutrition Agency, said earlier this month that the free nutritious meal program will benefit 82.9 million people when it’s fully implemented.

For every service unit covering 3,000 beneficiaries, it will require 200 kilograms of rice, 350 kilograms of chicken or 3,000 eggs, 350 kilograms of vegetables, and 600 liters of milk every day, Dadan said.

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