English
Indonesia: Trade Ministry to revise meat import regulation to include halal certification requirement
The Trade Ministry will revise its newly implemented Ministerial Regulation No. 29/2019 regarding export and import of livestock and meat products to emphasize halal certification requirements for exporters.
It did not incorporate the halal certification in the regulation as the requirement has been regulated by the Agriculture Ministry, causing public assumption that imported meat products would no longer need a halal label, said the ministry’s director general for foreign trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana in his office in Jakarta on Monday.
The labeling obligation was mentioned in Article 16 of the preceding Regulation No. 59/2016. However, it was only applied in meat distribution and not on imports.
“We will revise the regulation to put an affirmation clause regarding the requirement for halal certification on imported meat so there will be no more misunderstanding,” Wisnu said, adding that the revision will be done as soon as possible.
The halal label is deemed important for Indonesia’s population that mostly comprises Muslims.
Wisnu stated that there were at least two other regulations that now regulated halal meat imports and distribution, namely the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) Regulation No. 12/2016 on food product registration as well as Law No.33/2014 on halal certification.
“[The new regulation] is made so that it can be in harmony with other regulations,” Wisnu said, expressing hope that the meat import flow would be simpler as the halal certification only needed to be shown once at the Agriculture Ministry. (eyc)
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/09/17/trade-ministry-to-revise-meat-import-regulation-to-include-halal-certification-requirement.html