REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, YOGYAKARTA – Indonesian milk consumption is only 11.09 liter per capita per year, while Vietnam is in 12.1 liter, Thailand in 33.7 liter, Malaysia and India is each 40 liter per capita per year. The fact makes Indonesia as the lowest of milk consumption in Asia.
“If we calculate, the consumption of milk in Indonesia is only a drop a day,” the Director of Agricultural Cultivation of Directorate General of Cultivation and Marketing in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nazaruddin said on Tuesday.
Lacking of people’s awareness towards milk nutrition content and people’s purchasing power are two main concerns in this case. Indonesian milk production is also very low. From farm census in 2011, the population of dairy cows in Indonesia is only 597,000, while its production is only 900,000 tonnes per year.
“The milk production is only 26 percent of the total of Indonesian milk needs. We still import 74 percent of milk needs,” he explained.
The potential places in Indonesia to develop the dairy products are only East Java, Central Java, West Java, and Yogyakarta as it depends on milk processing company. “We will increase the development of dairy cows outside Java Island. The ministry will support the procurement of dairy cows in certain places,” he said.