INDONESIA TO TIGHTEN CONTROL ON FRUITS FROM CHINA

Jakarta, Jan 22 (ANTARA) - Indonesia will tighten its control over fruits from China to assure their quality, agriculture minister Suswono said here on Friday.

He said many fruits from that country were found not to be in good condition because they were harvested long ahead of the correct time and therefore their price was low.

"A lot of fruits from China are already a year old such as oranges so that they have already lost their aroma. We will tighten control on fruits coming from China," he said.

Apart from low quality, there are also other factors that have made fruits from that country cheap namely subsidy or dumping, he said.

In view of that he said it was time now for the country to impose a quality standard for fruits produced by farmers to increase their competitive power in the international as well as domestic market.

The imposition of an Indonesian National Standard (SNI) code, he said, would encourage farmers to improve their production to meet the standard.

Regarding fear over the country's export products's competitiveness with regard to the implementation of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement, the minister said Indonesia need not worry about it because it has prime products which could be exported.

"Fruits. We need not worry about fruits from China because we also have exotic products which could be exported there such as Zallaca palm fruits, mangosteen, manggoes and 'rambutan'," he said.

He said what the country needed to prepare was making the country's products competitive so that they could compete with imported products.

He said his office was ready to help the farmers meet the quality standard.