Int'l standard needed for herbal exports

Int'l standard needed for herbal exports

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta

The local herbal medicine industry must apply international
standards if it wants to boost its exports, a businessman said on
Tuesday.

Herbal Medicine Companies Association (GP Jamu) chairman
Charles Saerang said that the country's export of herbal
medicines reached only Rp 200 billion (US$21.9 million) last
year, whereas the potential market stood at more than $5 billion.

"This is due to the absence of international standards
(globally), which has become an obstacle for us to export our
herbal medicines to other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore
and Brunei Darussalam," said Charles.

He explained that currently Indonesia has its own standard
called The Method to Produce Good Herbal Medicine (CPOTB) set by
the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).

"But this is not acknowledged by foreign countries and thus
when we export our products they will be reexamined in time-
consuming laboratory procedures," he said.

He took Malaysia as an example as it imports herbal medicine
from Indonesia.

"Although we have tested the quality of our herbal medicine
through a series of laboratory tests before we export them, once
in Malaysia, they will still have to go through a series of
quality-control tests that will take between six and 12 months,"
Charles told the media.

The process does not stop there, he said, as after the quality
is proven good, they have to go through another process to obtain
import licenses.

"And it (the process of obtaining an import license) will take
another six to 12 months. You can imagine how time-consuming and
discouraging the procedures are as it seems they are making it
difficult for our products to enter the (Malaysian) market," he
said.

He explained that the lengthy procedures were partly a
reciprocal action on the part of the Malaysian government as it
claimed that Indonesia also applied difficult procedures for
imported goods from Malaysia.

"Thus, on behalf of GP Jamu, I sincerely hope that we can have
a government to government approach to create an international
standard, which will apply to all countries," said Charles.

He added that to create an acknowledged international
standard, leaders of all countries would have to come together to
discuss all issues, including export policy and regulations, and
quality standards.

For the local market, he said the GP Jamu aimed to cooperate
with the Indonesian Doctors' Association (IDI) to help promote
the use of herbal medicine products as they had gained popularity
in the country.

Currently, there are eight types of herbal medicines,
including Tensigaard (for high-blood pressure) from Paprhos and
Riomaneer (for rheumatism) from Nyonya Meneer, which can be used
with a doctor's prescription.

"We need to promote the use of herbal medicine among doctors
as the market for such medicines is very big," Charles said.

Total assets of herbal medicine companies in the country
amounted to Rp 3 trillion last year. The government is aiming to
increase the total sales to Rp 7.2 trillion by 2010.