Ministries Square Off Over Meat Shipments
From The Jakarta Globe
Agriculture Ministry Finally Releases Imported Meat Held at Port
by Dian Ariffahmi
The Agriculture Ministry on Monday instructed quarantine officials to release more than 100 containers of imported meat that had been held at the Tanjung Priok port for nearly three weeks, reversing an earlier order claiming the meat was not halal.
“I signed a letter this morning instructing the Quarantine Agency to release the impounded containers and allow other containers from Australia and New Zealand to enter Indonesia,” Tjeppy Sujana, the ministry’s director general for livestock, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.
The ministry acted after it received a letter from the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) stating that the meat was halal and fit for consumption by Muslims, Tjeppy said.
“The letter was sent late on Friday, but I only received it on Sunday evening,” he said by telephone from Boyolali, Central Java.
A bout 138 containers have been stuck at the port since May 20, with the Quarantine Agency claiming that an earlier letter from the MUI informed the ministry that the meat, processed at Australian and New Zealand slaughterhouses, did not meet the council’s halal standards.
An additional 99 containers of meat entered the port on Friday and were also held up, according to the Indonesian Meat Importers Association (Aspidi).
On Thursday, Bayu Krisnamurthi, the deputy for agriculture and fisheries at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, said that the meat was halal and that the government had already ordered the release of the containers.
Bayu said that the MUI letter was actually just a warning that new requirements for halal certification were going to be introduced on Oct 1.
But later that day, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono ignored the order and said he would have the importers send back all containers of meat that arrived since March 25, when the MUI letter was sent.
Agriculture Ministry Finally Releases Imported Meat Held at Port
by Dian Ariffahmi
The Agriculture Ministry on Monday instructed quarantine officials to release more than 100 containers of imported meat that had been held at the Tanjung Priok port for nearly three weeks, reversing an earlier order claiming the meat was not halal.
“I signed a letter this morning instructing the Quarantine Agency to release the impounded containers and allow other containers from Australia and New Zealand to enter Indonesia,” Tjeppy Sujana, the ministry’s director general for livestock, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.
The ministry acted after it received a letter from the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) stating that the meat was halal and fit for consumption by Muslims, Tjeppy said.
“The letter was sent late on Friday, but I only received it on Sunday evening,” he said by telephone from Boyolali, Central Java.
A bout 138 containers have been stuck at the port since May 20, with the Quarantine Agency claiming that an earlier letter from the MUI informed the ministry that the meat, processed at Australian and New Zealand slaughterhouses, did not meet the council’s halal standards.
An additional 99 containers of meat entered the port on Friday and were also held up, according to the Indonesian Meat Importers Association (Aspidi).
On Thursday, Bayu Krisnamurthi, the deputy for agriculture and fisheries at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, said that the meat was halal and that the government had already ordered the release of the containers.
Bayu said that the MUI letter was actually just a warning that new requirements for halal certification were going to be introduced on Oct 1.
But later that day, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono ignored the order and said he would have the importers send back all containers of meat that arrived since March 25, when the MUI letter was sent.