European Union tells Indonesia to improve quality of fish products

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The 25-member European Union (EU) has been rejecting most of Indonesian fish products for quite some time due to contamination, so the fishing industry here must improve the quality of its marine products, a senior EU official said on Wednesday evening.

"There have been many rejected consignments (of fish exports) this year. And we don't want trade to be affected, but we have no choice unless the situation improves," European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou told The Jakarta Post at the end of his three-day tour here.

Kyprianou arrived in Jakarta on Monday as part of his official Southeast Asian tour to discuss avian influenza and food safety with Indonesian officials.

Indonesian fishing products, mainly tuna, were found to be contaminated with heavy metals; enough to endanger human health, said Kyprianou, who also met with Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Freddy Numberi during his stay.

"We expressed our concern during our meeting with the minister. We want fish that is grown in a natural way. So the Indonesian government must take effective measures to deal with this problem," he said, while offering technical advice from the EU to improve the quality of the fish products.

Meanwhile, the ministry's director general for fish processing and marketing Martani Husaini said in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Tuesday that the EU and the U.S. had imposed an embargo on all shell fish from Indonesia.

"Our shell fish and other marine products are contaminated with heavy metals and raw sewage. So, we have to improve the quality of our products," he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Despite all these problems, Indonesian exports of fishery products reached 250 million euro (US$287 million) last year.

By increasing the quality of fishery products, according to Kyprianou, Indonesia can benefit from the huge European market.