Many RI farm exports not up to standard: Rahadi

Many RI farm exports not up to standard: Rahadi

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Industry and Trade Rahardi Ramelan
acknowledged on Tuesday that many Indonesian farm products are
still being rejected by importing countries mostly due their low
quality.

Speaking at a seminar on the promotion of agricultural
products, the minister said that the government had conducted
bilateral talks with such importers but the results were not so
encouraging because not much effort was made by local producers
to improve the quality of their farm products.

According to Rahardi, a bilateral approach based on mutual
agreement should be more effective than other approaches in
dealing with non-tariff barriers as long as related parties like
producers and traders were willing to follow up recommendations
such as the need to improve quality standards.

"We have used mutual recognition agreements in dealing with
several main export destinations, including Australia and the
United States," he said when addressing a seminar on encouraging
exports of agricultural commodities. "But so far many of our
exports of agricultural products have been rejected by importing
countries."

Rahardi said that Indonesia's exports of agricultural products
reached US$3.04 billion during the January-October period of
1998, up 15.41 percent from $2.63 billion in the same period of
1997.

Rahardi said Indonesia's exports of canned mushrooms, fresh
and frozen shrimps and other fishery-related products have often
been rejected by the United States.

"Many of our agricultural products were also barred from
entering the Australian market because they could not meet
Australian standards," he said.

Director General of International Trade Djoko Moeljono said
Australia rejected 0.85 percent of Indonesia's exports of
processed and unprocessed food in 1997.

Of the 0.85 percent, he said, "at least 66 percent of our food
exports have been rejected by Australia due to its health
requirements. Sixteen percent were rejected due to high pesticide
content, 12 percent due to the preservative content and 6 percent
because they exceeded the allowed microbiological levels".

He added that tons of Indonesian cocoa were also being slapped
with "automatic detention" or price cuts by the United States
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because the cocoa did not
meet U.S. standards of properly-dried cocoa.

Rahardi said the rejection showed that Indonesian exporters
did not understand the export regulations in destination
countries.

Rahardi said that the government would continue its agreements
with importer countries in order to increase exports of
agricultural products. (gis)