Indonesia, one of Canada’s largest wheat markets, will exempt Canadian product from tough new food inspection rules it is imposing, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced Oct. 15.After a weeklong trade mission to Asia that included a visit to Indonesia, Ritz said in a telephone news conference that the Indonesian agriculture minister has agreed to recognize Canada’s “superior” quality and food safety controls, exempting Canadian wheat and durum, potatoes, berries and other plant-based foods from the new testing regime that could have held up shipments at Indonesian ports of entry.”What this means is that Canada’s wheat exports will no longer be subject to the recently imposed additional control measures, which are costly, time-consuming and unnecessary,” he said. “By ensuring no additional testing or inspection costs or delays, Canadian wheat can continue to flow freely to Indonesia, a market expected to be worth more than $300 million this year.”The Canadian Wheat Board immediately praised Ritz for negotiating the exemption.”Indonesia is one of our top five markets and what this does is avert new inspections that would have delayed shipments and cost money,” said CWB media relations manager John Lyons Oct. 15.During the last crop year, the CWB shipped 845,000 tonnes of wheat to Indonesia.Ritz also visited Hong Kong on the trip, noting that an opening of that market to Canadian beef last year has produced sales of more than $100 million this year, far higher than expected.And during the first meeting of agriculture ministers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Niigata, Japan, Ritz said he promoted freer trade and the need for importing countries to understand that trade in the products of biotechnology must be part of the solution to dealing with world food security.The minister said he hopes Japan’s new government soon will increase its acceptance of Canadian beef to under 30 months from under 20 months.
Canadian products exempt from tough new Indonesian food laws
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