Agricultural imports from India suspended by Indonesia

Sakshi Education

Indonesia has stopped imports of agricultural products from India, citing a failure by New Delhi officials to register laboratories that evaluate food safety and issue certificates of analysis (COA), causing worry among cereal exporters.
In an order to the head of its Agricultural Quarantine Centre, the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture stated that its authority to accredited laboratories for testing the safety of fresh food from India and issuing the COA has been revoked.
COAs issued by laboratories indicating that clear exports of fresh food of plant origin were certified in 2019 would not be recognised, according to the Ministry, although certificates issued on or before March 24 will be legitimate.
Indonesian exporters have been notified of the order. The news came after Indonesia issued a notice to exporters requiring them to give extra information to the COA.
The notification was sent three to four months ago by Indonesia.
While countries like Vietnam and Thailand were able to register their laboratories providing COAs well ahead of time, Indian authorities were unable to meet the deadline.
The registration application should be submitted through diplomatic channels. However, the embassy in Jakarta failed to register on time.
During the April-January fiscal year 2021-22, Indonesia accounted for 6% of India’s wheat exports. It bought 3.64 litres out of the 60.2 litres shipped out over the time period. In terms of rice, Jakarta purchased 2.07 lt from India, accounting for 2% of the total 13.9 million tonnes shipped by New Delhi from April 2021 to January 2nd, 2022.