Govt in the dark on contaminated wheat purchase

Govt in the dark on contaminated wheat purchase

Rendi A. Witular
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The government vowed that it would try not to allow the import
of contaminated Australian wheat, which has been recently
rejected by a Pakistani buyer and reportedly sold to Indonesia
after an alleged fungal infection was found.

Ministry of Agriculture's secretary general Memed Gunawan told
The Jakarta Post on Friday that the ministry had not yet received
any information on whether such imports had taken place here.

"We haven't received such a report yet, but you can check
directly with the Agricultural Quarantine Agency. If there is
evidence of fungal diseases in the wheat, we will automatically
reject it," said Memed.

Lailatul, a staff member at the crop quarantine division of
the Agricultural Quarantine Agency, said that his office would
immediately inspect imported wheat if there was suspicion it had
been contaminated.

A recent report by AFP said that Indonesian buyers were among
those planning to buy Australian wheat that has been rejected by
Tradesman International, a Pakistani company, after locally
administered tests detected Karnal bunt disease, which is harmful
to humans.

Other countries that decided to import the wheat shipment,
which is valued at around US$23 million, are Sri Lanka and the
United Arab Emirates. Australian tests have cleared the wheat of
the alleged fungal infection.

Elsewhere, chief commercial officer of flour producer PT
Bogasari Flour Mills, Philip S. Purnama, told the Post that the
Pakistani firm had indeed offered the wheat to Bogasari and other
local companies that are part of the Indonesian Flour Producers
Association (Aptindo).

But none of the local companies decided to accept the offer,
because of the disease, he said.

"We have been offered the wheat, but we have never accepted
it. Bogasari has never bought wheat from a Pakistani trader... We
directly import wheat from Australia, transported by our own
vessels," said Philip.

He explained that Bogasari had received a guarantee letter
from the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) on March 12, stating that
Karnal bunt had never been detected in Australia.

The company, which is a unit of the world's largest instant
noodle producer PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, is one of the
country's largest wheat importers.