Jakarta - Indonesia, along with India and China, has the potential to become one of the world`s biggest fowl markets, an industry official said.

     "The International Food Center (IFC) has projected that Indonesia, China and India will be the world`s largest fowl markets in the future," Don P Utoyo, coordinator of the Indonesian Fowl Society, said here on Thursday.

     He said that the population of the three countries accounted for 40 percent of the world`s population so that they had the potentials to become the world`s largest market.

     "We have the biggest potential, particularly for fresh fowl products. As regard to fowl exports to China, they should be in the form of processed first," he said.

     As the biggest market, Indonesia should be careful of imported fowl products. "If the government is careless in opening its market for fowl, we, the fowl farmers at home, would face a problem," he said.

     He said that ahead Indonesia should learn a lesson from its experience in importing chicken legs from the United States.

     The other problem that could happen was the entry of diseases with imports, Utoyo said.

     He said that imports from Thailand could be guaranteed that the products were `halal` or edible based on the Islamic law because that country had required that chicken should be slaughtered based on the Islamic law before they were exported ( to Islamic countries).

     In the meantime, chairman of the Indonesian Fowl Business Association Anton Supit said that the Indonesian people`s fowl consumption was still low, namely only 4.8 kg per capita per annum.

     In the United States, he said, the people`s fowl per capita consumption was recorded at 6.4 kg.

     He said that although fowl processing industry at home was facing constraints, yet this industry must be maintained for the sake of meeting the need for fowl protein of the people.

     Anton Supit said that the price of fowl protein was relatively lower than that of meat or fish.

     The price of chicken is between Rp13,000 and Rp14,000 per kg, and that of chicken egg at Rp15,000 per kg. These prices are lower than that of meat, he said.
-Antara, 2 July 2010-

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