Jakarta. Indonesia reported that it had imported $61.2 million worth of beef in January as the Muslim-majority country inched closer to the fasting month of Ramadan.

Muslims around the world will fast for a month starting in March. They will hold their hunger and thirst from dawn to sunset. The Ramadan period is also synonymous with a rising demand in beef and other food commodities. According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia’s beef imports totaled tens of millions of American dollars last month.

“We imported approximately 18,220 tons of beef in January. This is equivalent to $61.2 million in value,” Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, the acting head of BPS, told a press briefing on Monday.

Volume-wise, Indonesia imported 27,250 tons of beef in December 2024, thus marking a month-to-month decline. From a value standpoint, beef import had also dropped around 39.6 percent compared to $101.4 million recorded in December.

BPS data showed Indonesia had bought about 73.5 percent of its imported cattle meat from India last month. Close neighbor Australia supplied 15.7 percent of the imported beef. Indonesia had also purchased 1,630 tons of Brazilian cattle meat the same month, thus representing almost 9 percent of the total beef imports that period. The overall imports were also mostly frozen boneless meat.

Cattle Farming Investment

Indonesia is opening its doors for foreign investors who wish to invest in the country’s cattle farming sector. This way, Southeast Asia’s largest economy does not need to spend state money to bring in higher quality cattle to improve its milk and beef production. It will also likely reduce beef import.

Indonesia aims to import 200,000 dairy cows and another 200,000 beef cattle in 2025 through this private investor scheme. Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman admitted that Indonesia would need an extra 880,000 tons of beef to meet its national demand. These figures already take into account the additional demand from President Prabowo Subianto’s signature free school meal roll out. Indonesia also plans to continue distributing these government-aided meals during Ramadan, although it will make some adjustments to its distribution.

The Agriculture Ministry has been in talks with Vietnamese dairy giant TH Group that is looking to invest in a cattle breeding site in Indonesia. TH Group's chairwoman Thai Huong even met with Andi Amran to give updates on the investment plans just last week. Previous reports showed that TH Group’s investment would put more emphasis on dairy production. The company plans to ship 250,000 dairy cows into Indonesia to produce 1.8 million tons of milk each year.