Trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu raised the issue in a meeting with her Australian counterpart Craig Emerson at her office here on Wednesday.
The director general of international trade cooperation, Gusmardi Bustami, who also attended the meeting said the Australian government had pledged to accelerate the process of verification on health and cleanliness which have so far hindered the access of Indonesian fruits to that country.
"So far our fruits have difficulties entering there due to sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements or Australian SPS that calls for verification of the location and planting methods which takes a lot of time. This will be accelerated as the Indonesian government has asked for," he said.
In the next few months he said the process of SPS verification on tropical fruits from Indonesia such as mangosten, zallaca fruit and manggoes would be accelerated. "For how long it would depend upon the results of examination which is still being carried out," he said.
So far the tight SPS rule has made tropical fruits from Indonesia unable to enter that country`s market although the tariff has been eliminated.
The Indonesian government has tried to overcome the problem by inviting a food security inspection team from Australia to survey the fruit plantations and the fruit packaging factories in Bogor that have met the international SPS standards.
Gusmardi said the government has also been trying to overcome the market access problems of food products which were not allowed to enter that country.
"There are some food products that are not allowed to enter into that country because they are considered not meeting the labeling regulation such as ketchup and snack cream strawberry. The government is seeking common recognition on the products through the two countries` drug and food supervisory agencies," he said.
(T.M035/H-YH/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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