inp.polri.go.id - Jakarta. The Vice Minister of Agriculture, Sudaryono, explained that not all Free Nutritional Meal (MBG) packages will have milk, although President Prabowo Subianto actually wants all Indonesian children to have milk.

This unfortunate news came as Sudaryono explained that the milk production in the country is still unable to meet the demands. To not rely on imports, the government had initially substituted milk with other menus.

In an effort to procure milk for all children in Indonesia, the government will gradually bring in live cattle from abroad, so that domestic milk production will increase.

He further said that in 2025, it is hoped that 200 thousand cattle will enter Indonesia. Apart from Australia, the cattle will be brought in from other integrated countries.

“We just passed the Presidential Decree on this matter so we can bring in live cattle from Australia and other registered countries as we will add more countries on the list,” explain Sudaryono.

For information, it is known that previously, the Head of the National Nutrition Agency, Dadan Hindayana, provided information regarding the non-inclusion of milk in the MBG Program in the regions. According to him, milk is prioritized for areas that have dairy farms.

This step aims to reduce dependence on milk imports. For areas that do not have milk production or dairy farms, protein sources are replaced with other ingredients such as fish and eggs.

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