Indonesia Explores Collaboration with the Netherlands to Boost Dairy Industry Productivity

INTI,- The Ministry of Industry continues to drive the development of the dairy processing industry in Indonesia to be more productive and globally competitive. Dairy processing is a priority sector for development in accordance with the National Industrial Development Master Plan (RIPIN) 2015-2035 and the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap.

"To increase productivity in the dairy processing industry in the country, one of the efforts that needs to be encouraged is the provision of quality dairy cows to meet the needs of Fresh Domestic Milk (SSDN) as raw material," said the Director-General of Agro Industry at the Ministry of Industry, Putu Juli Ardika in Jakarta on Wednesday (26/4).

In mid-April, the Directorate-General for Agro Industry led a delegation to the Netherlands. The Indonesian delegation represented the Ministry of Industry, the Indonesian Embassy in Brussels, and the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague. They met with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit/LNV), the Agricultural and Horticultural Organization in the Netherlands (Land-en Tuinbouw Organisatie Nederland/LTO), Friesland Campina NV, and several dairy farmers in the Makingga and Warder regions of the Netherlands.

"Our visit to the Netherlands was intended to explore cooperation and investment in the provision of dairy cows. Additionally, we wanted to learn about modern and sustainable dairy farming processes. We also visited the Friesland Campina milk processing plant in Leeuwarden," he said.

According to Putu, the results of the visit received a positive response from both LNV and LTO. "The Netherlands has various potentials that can be explored further with various parties in Indonesia, especially with the private sector interested in investing in dairy cows," he added.

At the meeting with LNV, the Director-General for Agro Industry conveyed that the current condition of the dairy processing industry in Indonesia faces a shortage of fresh milk raw materials of up to 80%. Therefore, several large dairy processing companies in Indonesia are interested in buying original Holstein dairy cows from the Netherlands, totaling 8-16 thousand cows.

"We offer Indonesia as 'a new hope for Dutch cattle' because Dutch dairy farmers can relocate their dairy cows to Indonesia or invest in Indonesia," Putu said.

During the meeting, the Director for International Agribusiness and Food Security LNV, Ralf van de Beek explained that the dairy cow industry in the Netherlands is currently improving to face climate change, especially regarding the reduction of nitrogen levels in cow manure, the health of soil and water for feed, and anticipating high rainfall that can trigger floods. "With the triple helix principle (industry, government, and university or society), we are confident that we can solve the challenges for the sustainability of the dairy industry in the Netherlands," he said.

Meanwhile, during the meeting with LTO, Chairman for Sector Dairy Farming Erwin Wunnekink stated that the typical dairy farmer in the Netherlands has a family-scale farm, with 200-500 dairy cows, so the management used is relatively simple, namely land management, input, production, delivery to off-takers, and waste processing.

"With this typical farmer, automation equipment/machines become one of the alternative solutions for managing large-scale dairy farms, such as the use of genuine LELY milking robots produced by a Dutch company," he said.

In the same meeting, Corporate Director Dairy Development Friesland Campina NV, Jeroen Elfers, conveyed the progress of the new Frisian Flag Indonesia factory project in Karawang, covering an area of ​​25 hectares, which is almost complete. The factory will collaborate with PTPN using local milk sources.***.Hans