Indonesia still importing Australian cattle despite diplomatic tension
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is Australia's biggest market for cattle and be…Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is Australia's biggest market for cattle and beef. Jakarta relaxed regulations on those imports this year to allow more to come in to help curb food inflation.
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan told Reuters on Thursday that trade policies were being reviewed, a day after the president announced Indonesia was freezing military and intelligence cooperation with its neighbor.
However, Bayu Krisnamurthi, the deputy trade minister, told Reuters: "There is no policy change yet on beef and cattle imports from Australia."
Media reports this week quoted documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden as showing that Australian agencies had spied on top Indonesians, including the president's wife.
In September, after Indonesia had abandoned a quota system, the Australian Bureau of Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) forecast the Asian country would buy 590,000 head of cattle from Australia in the year from October, up from 266,000 in 2012/13.
Australia suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia for a time in 2011 after reports of cruelty to animals there and the Australian beef industry suffered.
Rural debt levels across Australian farms jumped in the 2010/11 season and farms in Western Australia and the Northern