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.