Agliculture ministry suspends ruling on pesticide labeling

Agliculture ministry suspends ruling on pesticide labeling

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Agriculture has officially suspended the implementation of a ruling on pesticide labeling after sticker and pesticide producers failed to agree on an implementation system which would not burden farmers.

The suspension was reinforced through Ministerial Decree No. 81/1996, which was issued and became effective on Feb. 13.

The decree also stated that no suitable system for implementing the pesticide labeling ruling, has been formulated.

Under Decree No. 770/1995 issued last November, the minister of agriculture stipulated that pesticides should bear hologram stickers before they could be sold to protect users from the distribution of fraudulent products.

The 1995 decree, originally scheduled to come into effect in April, was greeted with fierce protests from pesticide producers who complained that such stickers would create additional costs which, in turn, would have to be passed on to farmers.

Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin Baharsjah said last month that pesticide and sticker producers were still negotiating on the terms and prices of the stickers. He had earlier emphasized that whatever compromise was reached, the government did not want farmers to suffer from the labeling.

The stickers were to be printed and distributed by a private company, PT Aryo Seto.

Sjarifudin also said earlier this month that the government might revoke or postpone the implementation of Decree No. 770/1995 if the pesticide labeling turned out to be a burden on farmers.

The suspension of the pesticide labeling came a few days after President Soeharto ordered ministries and other government institutions to revoke levies collected by private sector parties.

In response to the President's instruction, Bali Governor Ida Bagus Oka recently canceled his regulation assigning PT Arbamass Multi Invesco a license to collect labeling levies on beer distributed on the island. (pwn)