POULTRYINDONESIA, Tangerang – The Free Nutritious Meals (Makan Bergizi Gratis/MBG) program is considered an opportunity to build a more integrated poultry supply chain while strengthening the welfare of smallholder farmers. However, this significant market potential needs to be accompanied by an inclusive ecosystem so that opportunities arising from increased demand for animal protein are not enjoyed solely by large-scale businesses.

This issue was raised during GOPAN Forum Session 2, organized by the National Poultry Farmers Organization Guard (Garda Organisasi Peternakan Ayam Nasional/GOPAN) as part of ILDEX 2026 on Wednesday (16/9) at ICE BSD, Tangerang. The session carried the theme “Breaking the Cycle: MBG and Smallholder Farmer Welfare, Building a Fair Supply Chain.”

GOPAN Chairman Herry Dermawan said the broiler industry plays a strategic role in supporting national food security by providing safe, high-quality, and affordable animal protein. At the same time, the industry is an economic driver involving multiple links in the value chain, from breeding, feed, and animal health to poultry slaughterhouses, distribution, MSMEs, and smallholder farmers spread across various regions. According to him, the challenges faced by farmers are not limited to production, but also include market certainty and business sustainability.

“Under these conditions, MBG brings both new opportunities and challenges. The program, which targets millions of beneficiaries every day, has the potential to significantly increase demand for animal protein. However, if the MBG ecosystem is not designed inclusively, independent farmers may face even greater difficulty accessing the market because the supply chain remains dominated by large integrators. Therefore, we need to formulate closed-loop and fairer partnership schemes so that smallholder farmers continue to have a place in the MBG supply chain,” he said.

According to Herry, these issues are closely linked to the poultry industry cycle, which has continued to face various challenges for more than two decades. Fluctuations in live-bird prices, imbalances between production and market demand, high production costs, changes in the trading system, and supply-chain efficiency remain recurring issues. At the same time, independent smallholder farmers are increasingly limited in their share of the poultry population, making the sustainability of smallholder farming and equitable regional economic development areas of concern.

In a broader context, Director General of Livestock and Animal Health Services (Dirjen PKH) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Agung Suganda, emphasized that national food security cannot be measured solely by the availability of carbohydrate-based foods. He said meat, milk, and eggs are strategic sources of animal protein that contribute to meeting nutritional needs while improving the quality of human resources.

“Food security is not only about adequate carbohydrates, but also food of animal origin,” he said.

According to Agung, the development of animal-based food security needs to rest on at least four aspects: availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability. Availability concerns sufficient and sustainable production capacity, while accessibility relates to distribution and affordability. Meanwhile, utilization must ensure that products meet the ASUH principles—safe, healthy, whole, and halal—and stability is needed to ensure that food availability and access can be maintained over the long term.

The importance of the poultry sector in meeting the population’s protein needs is also reflected in consumption trends. Data presented by Agung showed that the consumption participation rate for broiler chicken meat increased from 52.48% in 2021 to 60.76% in 2025. During the same period, the consumption participation rate for chicken eggs rose from 87.18% to 91.56%. Per-capita consumption of broiler chicken meat also reached approximately 13.77 kg per capita per year in 2025, while chicken egg consumption reached approximately 22.36 kg per capita per year.

According to Berdikari Commercial Director Agus Wahyudi, the increasing demand needs to be accompanied by a shift in how livestock businesses approach production. Traditionally, production is carried out first, with farmers then looking for buyers once the chickens reach market age. This pattern leaves farmers more vulnerable to changes in prices and market absorption.

“Have farmers ever, when they start producing chickens, already thought, ‘When it’s time to harvest, where am I going to sell them?’” he asked.

Agus encouraged the industry to make market demand the starting point for determining production. Information on demand volume, product specifications, timing of demand, and market locations needs to be known before farmers establish their production schedules and targets.

“Let’s identify market demand first. How much is needed? What are the production specifications? When is it needed? When will it be absorbed? Where are the points of absorption? Only then should that information become the basis for our production planning,” he explained.

Within this framework, MBG can serve as an example of how markets can be developed as the basis for production planning. However, this opportunity requires infrastructure and supply-chain systems capable of maintaining continuous product absorption. Agus emphasized that this shift is important to reduce the risks that arise when production does not align with market certainty.

“The market is no longer the end destination of production. The market must become the starting point of our planning,” he stressed.