Imported Food Bottleneck Expected to Get Tighter
The country’s hotels and restaurants are now chronically short of imported foods and beverages, with hospitality sector associations blaming a Trade Ministry regulation implemented in November that requires strict import-inspection labeling, or ML, on foreign food products.
The shortages are set to worsen next month, however, when the ministry begins limiting foreign food shipments to five main ports in Indonesia, said an official from a retail organization.
Government interference in the import sector began creating shortages of many food items four months ago, when the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, or BPOM, began banning certain products, said Nugroho Setiadharma, head of product distribution at the Indonesia Retail Merchants Association, or Aprindo.
“Many of our imported food and beverage orders have been stuck at the ports,” said Nugroho, explaining that the shortages worsened in November when BPOM began raiding stores selling imported food and seizing goods because they did not carry ML certification labels.
Some of the requirements importers need to meet to get these labels are not practical, Nugroho said. “You can’t ask companies to provide secret recipes, for example,” he said.
He said the Indonesia market is too small to justify such complicated import requirements. “The power that the government gave to BPOM is unrealistic,” said Nugroho.
Retailers, hotels and restaurants are running short on about 6,000 imported products, mostly from markets such as Japan, the United States, South Korea and Taiwan.
“Most of our members have complained that they have been running low on imported ribs, cheese, wine and special cooking sauces for the last six weeks,” said Carla Parengkuan, executive director of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, on Monday.
Shortages of these goods started after the government began requiring ML labels on imported food items, she said. “Suppliers stopped shipping many products,” she said, adding that food shipments that used to arrive once a week are now coming in as infrequently as once every two or three weeks.
The distribution bottleneck has also affected chain restaurants. “Some chains such as Tony Roma’s have run out of imported ribs,” said Parengkuan.
Benjamin Mailool, Aprindo chairman, said that the country is even running short on trusted brands such as Kellogg’s, Cadbury and Gerber. “We can’t provide these products because of the new ML label requirements,” he said.
Susanto, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Modern Retail Outlet Suppliers, or AP3MI, said consumers are now running on leftover stocks. Until there is ML label issue is dealt with, local companies will remain reluctant to import many products and the shortages will continue, he said.
“We need to simplify the label requirements, because the current ones are impossible to meet,” Susanto said.
The shortages are set to worsen next month, however, when the ministry begins limiting foreign food shipments to five main ports in Indonesia, said an official from a retail organization.
Government interference in the import sector began creating shortages of many food items four months ago, when the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, or BPOM, began banning certain products, said Nugroho Setiadharma, head of product distribution at the Indonesia Retail Merchants Association, or Aprindo.
“Many of our imported food and beverage orders have been stuck at the ports,” said Nugroho, explaining that the shortages worsened in November when BPOM began raiding stores selling imported food and seizing goods because they did not carry ML certification labels.
Some of the requirements importers need to meet to get these labels are not practical, Nugroho said. “You can’t ask companies to provide secret recipes, for example,” he said.
He said the Indonesia market is too small to justify such complicated import requirements. “The power that the government gave to BPOM is unrealistic,” said Nugroho.
Retailers, hotels and restaurants are running short on about 6,000 imported products, mostly from markets such as Japan, the United States, South Korea and Taiwan.
“Most of our members have complained that they have been running low on imported ribs, cheese, wine and special cooking sauces for the last six weeks,” said Carla Parengkuan, executive director of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, on Monday.
Shortages of these goods started after the government began requiring ML labels on imported food items, she said. “Suppliers stopped shipping many products,” she said, adding that food shipments that used to arrive once a week are now coming in as infrequently as once every two or three weeks.
The distribution bottleneck has also affected chain restaurants. “Some chains such as Tony Roma’s have run out of imported ribs,” said Parengkuan.
Benjamin Mailool, Aprindo chairman, said that the country is even running short on trusted brands such as Kellogg’s, Cadbury and Gerber. “We can’t provide these products because of the new ML label requirements,” he said.
Susanto, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Modern Retail Outlet Suppliers, or AP3MI, said consumers are now running on leftover stocks. Until there is ML label issue is dealt with, local companies will remain reluctant to import many products and the shortages will continue, he said.
“We need to simplify the label requirements, because the current ones are impossible to meet,” Susanto said.