Imported food, beverages must carry 'halal' labels

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.