RI adopts new ruling for Fish export to EC

JAKARTA (JP): A new procedure for Indonesian fish exports to the European Community will take effect beginning in July to comply with a new EC ruling effective August 1.

Director General of Fishery Muchtar Abdullah said yesterday he would brief fish exporters and relevant officials on the basic outline of the procedure in a meeting to be held soon.

By an EC Commission Decision (CD) every shipment of fish exported from Indonesia must from next month be covered by a health certificate to make it exempt from inspection at any European port of entry.

The Directorate General of Fishery is acknowledged by the CD as the competent authority for hygienic control of Indonesian fish and its fish quality-testing laboratory as the Inspection Department authorized to issue the certificate.

The document is to attest that the exported fish originated in pollution-free waters, were handled, processed, packaged, stored and distributed in a manner fulfilling standard requirements of organic chemistry, parasitology and microbiology.

To comply with the CD, the directorate general has screened 155 companies as meeting conditions to export fish to the EC, 137 of them with cold storage facilities, 16 with canning plants and two with drying units.

The list of authorized exporters is open-ended, to be lengthened or shortened as needed.

In 1993, from January to November, Indonesia exported US$73.2 million worth of fish to Holland, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The EC is the country's second-largest fish export market after Japan. (17)