JAKARTA, July 8 (Reuters) – Indonesia has temporarily
banned imports of beef products from New Zealand due to halal
certification issues, a senior agriculture ministry official
said on Tuesday.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation,
requires imported beef products to pass Islamic halal standards
for food consumption.
Under the halal certification rules for imported beef
products, suppliers must print halal labels and the labels must
be in both English and Indonesian.
“Halal labels on beef products imported from New Zealand
only used stickers, while it should be printed on the package,”
Tjeppy D. Soedjana, director general of livestock production at
the Agriculture Ministry, told reporters.
“Beef imports from New Zealand will be temporarily banned
until suppliers follow labelling instructions to guarantee it
meets halal standards,” he said, adding that the ban came into
effect from July 7.
Beef products which have been shipped from New Zealand
before July 7 can still enter the country, he said.
Indonesia, which consumed a total of 396,500 tonnes of beef
and beef products last year, imported 30 percent of that from
Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
