On December 2, the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) detected two new cases of coronavirus contamination in frozen fisheries product from Indonesia.
By
BRIGITA MARIA LUKITA GRAHADYAR
·4 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS—The Chinese authority found a new case of Indonesia’s fisheries products polluted by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Consequently, Indonesia faces a threat of export embargo on its fisheries product to China from the local authority.
On December 2, the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC) detected two new cases of coronavirus contamination in frozen fisheries product from Indonesia. Up to date, there are five contamination cases from Indonesia, making the country one of the top sources of frozen food products contaminated by coronavirus in China.
The National Fish Quarantine, Quality Control and Fishery Product Safety Agency (BKIPM) head Widodo Sumiyanto explained that the Indonesian government had received various notifications from GACC regarding coronavirus contamination in frozen food products from Indonesia, after the Chinese authority found contamination in samples of fisheries products from PT CKA in North Suma-tra and PT SFI in East Java. Each company sent one container with 25 tons capacity.
Meanwhile, Indonesia promised China to tighten monitoring on the processing of its fisheries products.
During tough negotiations on Wednesday, China still gave Indonesia a chance to export its fisheries products under strict requirement and supervision. Meanwhile, Indonesia promised China to tighten monitoring on the processing of its fisheries products.
Last week, when the third contamination case was announced, the Chinese authority warned Indonesia that it will stop import of frozen fisheries products from the country if it finds another contamination case.
“This is a serious threat. Businesses should not compromise their quality assurance. Only competi-tive companies with quality assurance can survive. The Indonesian government will respond serious-ly,” Widodo said.
According to data from Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, from January to August this year there had been 663 companies that exported fisheries products to China. 94 companies got their export permit revoked because they were not able to meet quality assurance and food safety stand-ards.
Widodo added that strict requirements implemented by the Chinese authority include food safety standards and upstream-downstream fisheries monitoring. The standards include production pro-cess of capture and cultivate fisheries, manufacturing process, packaging, distribution, as well as lo-gistics.
Besides that, all fisheries products exported to China also need to take COVID-19 contamination test. Only tightly monitored products are allowed to be exported to China.
The first case of coronavirus contamination occurred in September 2020 on the packaging of frozen Beltfish sent by PT PI in North Sumatra. The second case occurred on November 10. GACC an-nounced that it found coronavirus contamination in frozen Pomfret from PT ALI in East Java. The third case happened on November 26 in frozen Gulama from PT AL in Tangerang, Banten.
Sample test
Widodo added that his agency has tried to replicate the testing method conducted by the Chinese authority. The agency made this decision because the current method did not detect coronavirus contamination on Indonesia fisheries products.
Up to date, the BKIPM has conducted 200 sample tests. Meanwhile, China has conducted 800,000 sample test and found 18 contamination cases.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, KNTI has received report from fishermen in various regions over lax health protocol implementation.
Indonesian Traditional Fisherman Association (KNTI) head Dani Setiawan said businesses should pay attention to the implementation of health protocol. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, KNTI has received report from fishermen in various regions over lax health protocol implementation. It is because they do not have information about the impacts of coronavirus contamination.
“Mobilizing information from the central government to regional governments is crucial to ensure mitigation,” Dani said.
BKIPM’s COVID-19 taskforce member Teguh Samudra said the whole fisheries supply chain must im-plement strict health protocol. “Businesses should not become complacent and undisciplined [in implementing health protocol],” Teguh said.