January 7, 2010

 

Indonesia to regulate halal imports

 

 

The country's highest authority on Islamic affairs, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), is planning to maintain that all imported food labelled as halal obtain the council's own halal certification before it can be sold here.

 

Ma'ruf Amin, one of the chairmen of MUI, said many products imported from the US, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries have not passed official halal certification.

 

Key issues in halal certification include how animals are slaughtered and what ingredients go into processed foods, Amin said.

 

Despite the fact that officially halal products constituted only a fifth of products available in Indonesia, MUI Food and Drug Analysis Agency (LPPOM MUI) director Lukmanul Hakim said there had also been a growing awareness among consumers about the necessity for official halal certification of their daily consumable goods.

 

Lukmanul also said the LPPOM MUI would face much stronger challenges in the future, as Indonesia had entered a free trade era with China and member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

 

"There will be a lot of [new] products from abroad circulating in the Indonesia," he said.

 

Tariffs on 7,881 goods traded between six ASEAN founding nations were lifted on January 1.

 

"International certifiers have agreed - if they do not meet our standards their products will not be permitted to enter the country. So we will help them standardise the certification of products," Amin added.

 

The MUI is working with the Ministry of Agriculture, he said, as MUI representatives will now be involved in checking food at ports across the country.

 

Food importers fear that regular quarantining of products would result in a costly but unofficial system of payments to get them released.

 

Meanwhile, Amin also said that the council's standards for issuing a halal certification were internationally recognised.

 

He said MUI had been requested by Australia and New Zealand to supervise and determine minimum standards required for the issuance of halal certification in those countries.

 

However, Indonesian Association of Halal Product Manufacturers (APPHI) chairman Paulus Y. Rusli said MUI still needed to improve its halal certification system.