Zone-Based Import Regulation the Likely Cause of FMD Outbreak in Indonesia

TheIndonesia.co - The Indonesian Consumers Foundations, or YLKI, said the currently applicable import regulation might have contributed to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in regions across the country that has been taking place.

According to chairman of YLKI Tulus Abadi, the change made in how Indonesian authorities regulate the import of meat has made quite an impact, including it being the possible reason behind the FMD outbreak.

“I suspect and analyze that the outbreak of FMS is caused by changes in the orientation of meat import. In the past, the orientation of agriculture law adhered to country-based regime, and now, it’s zone-based,” Abadi said on Thursday, June 16, as reported by Antara.

In a country-based policy, Indonesia would only import meat from countries that are free from FMD, but in the recent zone-based policy, Indonesia can import meat including from India, a country that has not been entirely free from FMD.

“The government needs to review and return to country-based policy if it’s later found that the outbreak was caused by meat [or animals] that came from countries in red zone,” the chairman said.

Therefore, authorities need to immediately investigate and detect the initial source of FMD outbreak because the viral disease hadn’t been found in Indonesia for a long time previously.

Abadi added the recent zone-based policy is preferred in a hope of lowering the price of meat, especially beef, since Indonesia still depends on certain countries for this commodity, such as New Zealand and Australia.

“By allowing the import to be zone-based means more access, but it also means there’s a risk of FMD from countries [that continues to struggle with FMD],” he warned.