TEMPO.CO, Bandung - Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) head Muhammad Syarkawi Rauf said that the trial of beef cartel case involving 32 feedloters was still ongoing.

“Hopefully, the KPPU will be able to produce a verdict in six weeks,” Syarkawi said in Bandung on Sunday, January 24, 2016.

Syarkawi added that the feedloters involved in the case owned almost 70 percent of the national beef market share.

“Monthly demands on Beef in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi are extremely high,” he said.

Syarkawi revealed that to meet such high demands, the Agriculture Ministry and the Transportation Ministry implemented a joint policy to supply beef through the sea toll road.

“[The government] supplies beef from East Nusa Tenggara to Jakarta via the sea toll road. However, it’s not effective yet,” Syarkawi said.

Syarkawi explained that the limited capacity of ships transporting beef could not yet lower beef prices. Currently, there are three ships with a capacity of 500 cattle each.

“If they ship [cattle] three times a month, that means only 4,500 cattle are transported each month. The figure is still far below demands in Jakarta. We cannot expect this to stabilize beef prices,” he said.

Syarkawi added that the significant increase in beef prices was caused by the Finance Minister regulation imposing a 10 percent value-added tax (PPN) on imported beef. However, the government had removed the regulation since beef prices in Bandung, Jakarta and Surabaya had climbed.

West Java Governor Ahmad “Aher” Heryawan revealed that beef prices after the regulation removal had started to drop at slaughterhouses. Aher expected that the beef price would return to Rp100,000 (US$7.2) per kilogram.

“We will continue to monitor the beef price,” he said.

AHMAD FIKRI