Two Australian cattle exporters have formed a joint venture to supply dairy cattle to Indonesia in line with Indonesia’s free milk for school students program.

Frontier Agri International have so far exported 100,000 cattle to Indonesia in 2024, while its partner Southern Australian International Livestock Services (SAILS) has exported 195,000 dairy and breeding cattle predominantly from Australia since 2020. 

The free milk program is part of Indonesia’s new president Prabowo Subianto’s signature policy to provide regular free meals, which includes milk to 82m Indonesian school children. To meet the goal, Indonesia will need to import more than one million dairy cows between 2025 and 2028. The Indonesian Government is expected to import between 30,000 and 40,000 cattle initially.  Indonesia is preparing 1.5m hectares for investors to build dairy production facilities as well as increase investment in processing.