The Indonesian Government is pushing ahead with its domestic cattle shipping program, ordering another seven ships to be built this year.

The government launched the nation's first subsidised cattle ship late last year. Named the Camara Nusantara 1, the ship has since made three voyages, bringing cattle from outer islands into the main island of Java. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 19 seconds 4 m 19 s Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Dion Bisara from the Jakarta Globe explains Indonesia's domestic livestock shipping program ( Matt Brann ) Download 2 MB

Speaking to local media as 500 head were unloaded in Jakarta this month, Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman, confirmed more ships would be built.

"We have ordered seven ships," he said.

"From what I have heard, a ship costs about 50 billion rupiah, (AUD$5.2m) [which will be] paid by the transportation ministry.

"We have sent a letter to the ministry. It will be completed in sequence, seven ships."

Business editor for the Jakarta Globe, Dion Bisara, told ABC Rural the first two voyages by the Camara "were a bit of a disaster" and that "traders suffered hefty losses".

"They say the local farmers in Nusa Tenggara, when they bring the cattle to port, they have to pay several fees along the way to local authorities," he said.

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"They go through checkpoints, and it can sometimes be up to 15 checkpoints, and they have to pay certain fees at each, so when the farmers get their cattle to port and sell to traders the price is already inflated.

"Some of the farmers [in Nusa Tenggara] say the ship is not helping much with their selling price, because the traders ask for the lowest price possible.

"But they're hoping that if there are more ships [built], they'll have more bargaining power.

"Jakarta needs something like 700 to 900 cattle per day, but the Camara can only deliver 500 head maximum each month. So they need more ships to supply more cattle to Jakarta."

Mr Bisara said the government's domestic livestock shipping program had so far not impacted the price of beef in Jakarta.

He said around Christmas beef was selling for over Rp130,000/kg (AUD$13.50/kg) and had dropped slightly to around Rp115,000/kg. (AUD$12.00/kg)

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"It's not a big drop in price and the government aims to have the beef prices drop to about Rp85,000/kg (AUD$8.80/kg)," he said.

"They sell the cattle from the Camara at Rp85,000/kg, but the supply is just too small to have an impact on the overall market."

He said the new livestock ships set to be built this year were expected to take different routes than the Camara, sourcing cattle from areas such as Sulawesi and Kalimantan.