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• Indofood (market cap $4.04B) is an Indonesia-based company primarily in the food processing industry. The company runs its branded consumer products business through its subsidiary, PT Indofood CBP (ICBP) (market cap $8.88 B), produces items like dairy products, snacks, biscuits, food seasonings, beverages and special and nutritious foods
• Alfamart (PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk) is a convenience retail store chain, with 17,000 stores across the country and a market cap of $8.43 Billion. As well as selling multiple imported and domestic food products, it also produces multiple own-brand food products.
• Unilever Indonesia (market cap : $5.46 billion) sponsors 40 brands that are divided into 2 segments, namely Home, Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care and Nutrition & Ice Cream, and owns 9 Halal-certified factories in the country.
• Charoen Phokphand Indonesia (market cap $5.39 B) is a subsidiary of the Thai company, CP Foods, with a food division focused on processing chicken products.

• Existing Legislation:
  • The 2009 Law on Animal Husbandry and Animal Health (Law 18 of 2009) outlines regulations on animal welfare, including conditions for handling, transportation, and slaughter. This law prohibits the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in animal feed, which has implications for both the domestic market and export trade. Notable provisions include:
    • Article 66(1): Requires that animals are free from pain, fear, and pressure during various activities, including capture, husbandry, slaughter, and transport.
    • Article 66(2): Mandates that proper procedures are followed to minimise suffering during slaughter, but allows exemptions for religious practices.
    • Regulation 95 of 2012: Covers animal welfare, requiring adherence to the Five Freedoms across animal use, including transport and handling.
• Poultry and Swine Initiatives:
  • No specific regulations for the rearing of pigs, broiler chickens, egg-laying hens, or dairy cattle exist in Indonesia, although general animal welfare provisions apply.
  • The Indonesian government has been drafting regulations for poultry slaughter and transport, but these have not yet been fully assessed or implemented.
• Enforcement Mechanisms:
  • While some provisions under Law 18 of 2009 are enforceable with penalties, there is limited regulation and enforcement for animal welfare violations in rearing, transport, or slaughter.
  • Article 303 of the Penal Code provides light penalties for animal cruelty, with a maximum of three months imprisonment or a small fine for minor mistreatment.
• Consumer Awareness:
  • No detailed consumer awareness campaigns or surveys specific to Indonesia have been reported, but there is growing international concern about humane treatment, particularly in relation to slaughter practices.
• World Animal Protection recommends:
  • The Government of Indonesia is urged to improve legislation on farm animal welfare, particularly by banning the worst forms of confinement (e.g., farrowing crates, sow stalls, cages for laying hens).
  • The humane slaughter of all farm animals should be mandated, with pre-slaughter stunning promoted as compatible with religious principles.
  • Legally binding guidelines should be developed for rearing, transport, and slaughter practices across all animal species.

• Affordability: Indonesia’s agricultural self-sufficiency generally ensures affordable food for most of the population, and severe undernourishment is relatively low at 6.5%. However, child malnutrition remains a challenge, with 31.8% of children experiencing stunting and 17.7% classified as underweight. Government safety net programs provide support for those with limited access to food.
• Availability: Indonesia faces difficulties in agricultural development, such as poor research and development and restricted access to necessary agricultural inputs, which contribute to a lower availability score.
• Quality and Safety: The country struggles with limited dietary diversity, insufficient access to micronutrients, and poor protein quality. Additionally, the lack of national nutrition standards results in a lower score in this category.

• Sustainability and Adaptation: Indonesia’s exposure to climate risks, including rising temperatures, challenges with water quality for agriculture, limited renewable water resources, and relatively weak political commitment to agricultural adaptation, leads to a poor score in sustainability and adaptation.

• Negotiations for the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) have been ongoing and are now in the 14th round. This agreement aims to enhance trade while addressing sustainable development, including environmental protection, labour rights, and potential discussions on animal welfare. Eurogroup for Animals have written about welfare and conservation concerns that can be addressed in these negotiations (EFA, 2022).
  • In 2021, the EU proposed a chapter on sustainable food systems (SFS) as part of the EU-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). This chapter recognised animals as sentient beings and committed both parties to collaborate on developing science-based animal welfare standards. There were also suggestions to link the liberalisation of trade in animal products to the respect of EU-equivalent animal welfare standards by Indonesian exporters. Additionally, the proposal highlighted concerns over the trade of frogs' meat from Indonesia, which is the primary source for the EU. The trade raised significant welfare concerns due to cruel handling and slaughter practices.
• Signed in 2007, the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) focuses on economic cooperation and trade facilitation. It includes provisions for market access, investment, and the export of Indonesian agricultural products to Japan.

• Indonesia is a participant in ASEAN's initiative to create a unified market. The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), launched in the 1990s, aims to eliminate tariffs and promote trade between ASEAN member states, including Indonesia. AFTA plays a major role in advancing regional economic integration by reducing barriers to the movement of goods, including animal and plant-based products. While AFTA's regulations allow for exceptions to protect animal or plant life and health, which may open the door for individual nations to address welfare-related concerns in their trade policies, these considerations are not currently part of any active negotiations. ASEAN also has free trade agreements with countries like China, Australia/New Zealand and India, resulting in most goods being traded tariff-free.

• Export-focused businesses in Indonesia adopt stricter standards to meet international market demands.
• Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) are mandatory for exporting agricultural products, with certifications like IndoGAP in place, which plays a role in certifying hatcheries and monitoring aquaculture exports. (Indonesian Food Safety, 2020).
• These standards focus mainly on food safety and farmer welfare, with limited attention to environmental or animal welfare concerns.

• Indonesia has organic certification standards (SNI 6729:2016), emphasising natural farming methods and prohibiting synthetic chemicals and GMOs. Welfare is also referenced in the livestock farming section.
• The demand for organic products is growing, both domestically and internationally, though it still remains a niche market.

• Halal certification is a significant factor in food safety standards, governed by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).
• Regulations ensure compliance with Islamic practices, particularly in animal slaughter, with debates around modern practices like stunning.
• Halal standards are highly relevant to both domestic and export markets, enabling Indonesia to target the vast Halal market.

• Indonesia has introduced voluntary standards like Prima II/III GAPs, aimed at improving food safety and sustainability. (Sarjan et al, 2023)
• Enforcement of these food safety regulations remains inconsistent, particularly in the domestic market.
• Studies suggest mixed consumer responses to food safety labels, with some willingness to pay a premium but lingering concerns over label reliability and transparency.

• The Welfare Matters report also featured data from Globaldata that showed that health is, or would be, the main consideration for Indonesian consumers for choosing plant-based alternatives, followed by taste, price, safety and sustainability.

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• The Good Food Institute’s study on SE Asia in 2023 showed that:
  • Indonesia presents opportunities for growing the adoption of plant-based meat— Indonesian respondents were slightly less likely to be familiar with plant-based meat than consumers in other Southeast Asian countries. Less than 40 percent have tried plant-based meat and only 5 percent are regular consumers. However, Indonesian consumers also show strong consumer interest, positive product perceptions, and a willingness to try plant-based meat and increase consumption.
  • Health is an important motivator for current consumption, particularly driven by the perception that plant-based meat is easier to digest than animal meat
  • Affordability is the top factor that would increase consumption, followed by better nutrition and taste.

• Price Fluctuations and Instability: Meat price instability in Indonesia, particularly for chicken and beef, is exacerbated by reliance on volatile inputs like maize, a key component of animal feed . Government subsidies aimed at stabilising meat production may inadvertently prop up an unsustainable system, as these subsidies maintain the dependency on imports and volatile global commodity markets for feed. This creates economic inefficiencies, especially when shocks like COVID-19 disrupt global supply chains, driving up feed and meat prices. While alternative protein sources could present a solution to this volatility, it's essential that some alternatives are based on local protein sources. Relying on imported ingredients for alternative proteins could replicate the volatility seen in meat production.
• Export Market Shocks. In 2023, Singapore halted the import of live pigs from Indonesia for over a year after detecting African swine fever (ASF) in a consignment of pigs. COVID-19 also significantly affected Indonesia’s export of aquatic animal products, with the price of fish and octopus declining greatly, affecting smaller fishing communities in particular.
• Consumer Trends and Regulatory Changes: Rising global and domestic demand for plant-based or alternative proteins can shrink the market for conventional meat, dairy, or eggs. Additionally, stricter environmental or animal welfare regulations could increase compliance costs or limit certain production practices, pushing some players out of the market. In late 2024, the EU Regulation on Deforestation Free Products, or EUDR, is expected to have a significant impact on the palm oil exports from Indonesia, and similar laws passed elsewhere could have an impact on export-driven industries considered unsustainable or inhumane in Indonesia’s export markets.

• Zoonotic Diseases: Perhaps the greatest health risk from intensive animal agriculture is the risk of viral diseases, such as avian flu, swine flu, or coronaviruses, developing in Indonesian farms, and spreading to human populations. Indonesia, with a significant amount of rainforest cover and wild animals living close to large human and farmed animal populations, is a particularly high-risk area, and a recent study identified an area in Java as one of the three most vulnerable hotspots for SARS-like coronavirus infectious diseases in Asia.
• Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases: As with many developing nations, rising incomes and Westernised diets in Indonesia have led to higher consumption of processed and high-fat animal products. This shift may have contributed to the increasing rates of obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases, which are becoming increasingly significant public health concerns in the country. According to a 2018 UNICEF report, 1 in 3 adults (35.5 per cent, or 64.4 million) are overweight or obese, an increase of 6% from only 5 years previous. Cardiovascular disease is also an increasingly serious problem in Indonesia. Between 1990 and 2019, deaths from cardiovascular disease more than doubled, rising from 292,000 to 659,000.
• Foodborne illnesses are more common in tropical countries like Indonesia due to the warm climate, which supports the growth of harmful bacteria. Additionally, the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming contributes to antibiotic resistance, making infections harder to treat. These problems highlight the broader health impacts of current agricultural practices.

• Farmers and fishers also face significant occupational hazards, while living near intensive farms can lead to environmental health issues from air and water pollution.
• Data from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) shows that from 2013 to 2021, there were 124 ship accidents, including sinking, collisions, and other incidents. Fishing vessels accounted for 31% of these accidents between 2018 and 2020, and on average, 100 fishers died or went missing each year due to fishing boat accidents.
• In addition, there are multiple reports of modern slavery and other worker abuse associated primarily with the fisheries and aquaculture industry in Indonesia. In contrast to Thai fishing industries which engage primarily migrant fishers, fishers in Indonesia are Indonesian nationals, although many are internal migrants. Workers complain about sickness, exploitation and inhumane working conditions.