JAKARTA (Nov 5): Indonesia plans to import one million dairy cows from 2025 to 2028 in a move to increase milk production needed for the president's free meals programme, according to agriculture ministry data presented at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday.

The free meals programme for 83 million people was a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto, who took office last month. The ministry data showed the programme would need 3.6 million metric tonnes of milk when running at full scale in 2029, bringing total national demand to 8.5 million metric tonnes.

"The programme to increase milk and beef production aims to support the strategic programme of the cabinet, namely free meals," Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman told the parliamentary hearing.

This year, Indonesia's milk output is estimated at one million metric tonnes, while demand is estimated at 4.7 million tonnes.

With the imported dairy cows, the government expects milk output in 2029 would reach 8.17 million tonnes, the presentation showed. Potential sources of the dairy cows include Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, US and Mexico, the ministry said.

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