TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government will ease the regulation on the inspection of imported plant-based fresh products to save businesses from going through food security check in the country of origin. The inspection process will be done in Indonesian ports or quarantine centers, just like in the past.
The policy easing is expected to facilitate the supply of cocoa beans imported from developing countries that do not have laboratories certified by the Agriculture Ministry's Agriculture Quarantine Agency (BKP).
BPK Head of Plant and Biosafety Security Antarjo Dikin said the government prioritizes the industry's need raw materials, which is why the regulation will be issued soon.
"We must prevent Indonesia's well-running cocoa industry from being tainted by contaminated products," he said last week as Bisnis Indonesia reported.
Indonesia's cocoa processing industry mainly imports cocoa beans from West African countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
Antarjo asserted the government still enforce biosafety inspection schemes to avoid importing bad products and to protect Indonesia from pests that may still exist in other countries.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in the first semester of 2016 Indonesia imported 18,757 tons of cocoa beans worth US$58.8 million. The volume is down from last year's first semester 33,892 tons of import worth US$106.4 million.
