Indonesia's Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) penalized 32 Indonesian cattle importer and beef feedlot companies with a combined IDR 107 billion (approx. USD $8.1 million) in fines on grounds of the practice of unfair competition. These 32 companies have been found guilty of forming a cartel with the aim of controlling local beef prices, curtailing beef imports, and curtailing the distribution of beef at the expense of the Indonesian consumer, particularly in the Greater Jakarta area.

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The Indonesian Cattle and Buffalo Farmers Union (PPSKI) is pessimistic that Indonesia can achieve self-sufficiency in beef in either 2016 or 2017 despite the Indonesian government’s renewed push for self-sufficiency in various commodities, including beef. Self-sufficiency in beef is defined by the PPSKI as needing to import less than 10 percent of the nation’s total beef demand. However, with Indonesia’s beef demand estimated at more than 3.8 million (of live cattle) in 2016, while the country’s government news agency Antara said Indonesia is to import up to 600,000 live cattle this year, it implies that nearly 16 percent of domestic beef demand is imported.

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Over the past couple of years there have been many reports about Indonesia's beef mafia (referring to certain cartel practices in the nation's beef industry; practices that come at the expense of the Indonesian consumer as prices are kept high intentionally). A new report published on Beef Central on Monday (10/04) discusses why beef prices have not become more affordable for Indonesian consumers despite the government allowing imports of cheap frozen buffalo meat in mid-2016.

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