Aust can help feed Indonesia: candidate
Indonesia would buy more cattle properties and stock a giant dairy herd from Australia if the underdog in the country's presidential race succeeds.
Prabowo Subianto of the Gerindra Party is trailing in the polls, but as the July 9 election nears he is narrowing the gap on the favourite, Joko Widodo.
Prabowo's desire to see Indonesia rely less on foreign ownership and imports has raised concerns he has a protectionist agenda.
His brother and chief economic adviser, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, said on Friday that a Prabowo administration would try to protect some local sectors, such as small farmers.
In the case of beef imports from Australia, the party was considering a policy of encouraging more investment in Australian cattle properties, he said.
"I don't see any reason why Indonesian companies can't invest in Australia, buy Australian ranches and with the ranches buy Australian cattle," Hashim told the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
"Why not? ... We have a captive market here.
"Cattle raising needs a lot of land and needs a lot of water, and in a lot of Indonesia we have a lot of land but not enough water, in some places we have a lot of water but not enough land."
Hashim, who is one of Asia's richest men, said Prabowo also had a "white revolution" policy, which is a plan to give free milk daily to school children.
"That will require a lot of cows to be imported from Australia and New Zealand," he said.
"Next we would try to breed our own but it may be difficult because of the climate, it may be difficult because of the different types of soils and so forth, but that's the objective."
