Imported food, beverages must carry 'halal' labels

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Trade and Industry Rini. M. Soewandi said that all food and beverage products imported from overseas must carry a halal certificate -- saying the enclosed foodstuffs are appropriate for a Muslim diet -- according to guidelines from the Indonesian Council Ulemas (MUI).

"All imported products must own the ... certificate," Rini told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday.

Rini made the statement amid rising controversy regarding the influx of imported chicken legs from the United States, which can be sold very cheaply.

Expressing concern that the imports might hurt the country's small farmers, a number of political parties have openly questioned whether the leg quarters were, in fact, halal.

In order to be considered halal, the chickens must be killed in accordance with Islamic teachings.

MUI chairman Amidhan has insisted that his organization would reject the imported chicken leg quarters unless they carried halal certificates issued by Islamic centers approved by MUI.

MUI has reportedly entered cooperation agreements with several Islamic centers in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Amidhan said he felt that the importation of chicken leg parts from the U.S. damaged national pride because such foods were considered offensive by some Muslims.

In the U.S. chicken leg quarters -- known popularly as wings -- are viewed as "trash" eaten by "animals," Amidhan was quoted by Kompas as saying on Wednesday. "I know because I have been there ... "

In mid-2001, the Agriculture Ministry went as far as to issue a policy banning the import of chicken leg quarters from the U.S. because of fears that the food was not halal.

However, the Industry and Trade Ministry has intervened, and called on the Agriculture Ministry to relent to allow imported U.S. chicken parts into the market.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert R. Zoellick, during his two- day visit to Indonesia last week, asked government officials to re-open the country's market to chicken leg parts from the U.S.

One big problem persists, however: who has the right to issue the halal certificates?

Religious Affairs Minister Said Agil Husin Al Munawar said earlier that his office would assume the role of issuing the certificates -- for both domestic and imported products via the MUI.

It has, so far, issued two ministerial decrees: No. 519/2001 on labeling a halal with sticker, and No. 525/2001 that appoints state-owned company Peruri to print the halal label.

The move, however, was strongly criticized by several legislators, as well the Muslim Consumer Foundation (YLKM), which said that the sticker regulation would set the price of the food soaring, while placing undue burdens on consumers.

Information from the Trade and Industry Ministry reflects that Indonesia imported some 3,716 tons of chicken leg quarters from other countries in 1999 worth an estimated US$2.3 million.

In 2000, the import volume sharply increased to 12,649 tons -- or $8.3 million.

In the period between January and November of 2001, however, the total import value reached only about 432 tons, or US$278.000.