Indonesian Industry Fares Well, But Milk Not Enough

INDONESIA - It is no secret that the Indonesian dairy industry is seriously undersized for the nation's 240 million population permitting a milk consumption of only 7 liters/capita/year. In comparison, consumption in Europe is frequently above 200 liters, Singapore is 60 liters and Malaysia is about 30 liters.
calendar icon 4 January 2008
clock icon 2 minute read
The industry is also inefficient producing only 12-20 liters of milk per cow per day as opposed to international milk production values that on average can range between 30-50 liters.

As a guest of several visionary Indonesian industrialists, I recently had the opportunity to look at local dairy operations in the Bandung and Malang areas, both centers of milk production in Indonesia. Actually, when looking at local conditions, Indonesia's performance isn't so bad but it is clear that major changes must be introduced if local milk production is expected to provide for the increasing needs of the population.

Most Indonesian milk is produced by cows kept by small farmers and the individual cowshed rarely tops 10-15 cows. Under these conditions to keep costs low, milking is performed manually and the milk collected is of poor quality, contaminants having been introduced at every stage of handling the white gold.

Consequently, dairy industries that buy the milk cannot make high quality products with a reasonable shelf life and much of the milk goes towards the production of UHT milk which has great shelf life but doesn't taste fresh and, most important, is very expensive. As a result the market is dominated by imported milk products, ultra high temperature (UHT) milk and only here and there one finds locally produced fresh milk and its products, both often available only in the big cities.

Source: Jakarta Post
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