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Indonesia to Tighten Fisheries Imports
Arti Ekawati | March 10, 2010

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The government plans to tighten supervision of imported processed fisheries products to ensure quality standards are met, a senior official at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said on Wednesday.

Saut Hutagalung, the ministry’s director of foreign trade, said inspection of imported fisheries products in several regions had revealed that many were substandard, violating acceptable levels of formaldehyde and water content.

Saut said regulations required all imported fisheries products to be certified as free from disease, to have proper labeling and to have a maximum water content of 20 percent.

“We’ll have better cooperation with customs officials to control the flow of imports, making sure that only proper, quality products can enter the country,” Saut said.

He added that his office and the Ministry of Trade planned to issue a new regulation to help control the flow of imports. He did not elaborate.

Saut said the value of imported processed fisheries products had nearly doubled from 2007 to 2009, to $274.9 million from $142.7 million.

In addition to ensuring safer and higher-quality products for consumers, the move to tighten supervision of imports was also expected to help prevent financial losses for local fishermen and fish farmers, because the substandard products are usually sold for less than domestic products, he said.

He said imported silver catfish with excessive water content was found to be sold for only about Rp 9,000 (98 cents) per kilogram, compared with Rp 10,000 to Rp 15,000 per kg for the domestic variety.

Saut said the new measures would also help prevent the spread of diseases.

Suhana, a fisheries analyst at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), acknowledged that there had been a rapid increase in imported fisheries products, especially processed products, over the past two years.

He said most of the imports originated from China.